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Pittsburgh: A woman tried to poison her hospitalised infant son by repeatedly injecting salt water into his feeding tube in what she claimed were attempts to hasten the death of a sick and suffering child, police said.
But police said the boy's ongoing medical problems appeared to have been caused by his mother, who also told them she was suffering from severe postpartum depression.
Amber Brewington, 21, was charged Wednesday with one count of attempted homicide after telling police she had injected her son with salt water five or six times in Tennessee and Pennsylvania hospitals.
A hospital worker called police late Tuesday after a nurse reported seeing Brewington disconnect the boy's feeding tube. Brewington was taken into custody at the hospital with a pink camouflage backpack that had a large container of Morton salt, two bottles filled with salt water and a plastic syringe, police said.
Her 4-month-old son, Noah King, remained in critical condition with sodium poisoning at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Confession
Brewington told police that her son was admitted to a hospital in Columbia, Tennessee, in May and was later transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, where he suffered unexplained seizures and possible brain damage.
While at the Nashville hospital, Brewington "gave her infant son four to five full syringes of high volume salt water in attempts to speed up his death," police wrote in an affidavit. "Amber felt that she did not wish to see her son suffer."
King was transferred to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on July 9. Upon arrival, he had one of the highest recorded levels of sodium, even for an adult, according to the affidavit.
Brewington admitted giving him another syringe of salt water on Sunday, though she denied she was trying to do it again when she was caught by the nurse Tuesday, police said.
Pittsburgh Police Comander Thomas Stangrecki, however, said Wednesday: "We believe last night was another attempt to deliver more salt water or sodium to her child."
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