Dad charged with poisoning baby after giving infant OxyContin on the Gold Coast

Dad charged with poisoning baby after giving infant OxyContin on the Gold Coast



A GOLD Coast father stands accused of poisoning his own child after giving a two-month-old baby a painkiller so powerful that it has been dubbed “hillbilly heroin”.
Police from the Gold Coast Child Protection Investigation Unit will allege the 22-year-old Carrara man force-fed his crying baby girl an OxyContin tablet to calm her down so he could have a sleep and enjoy a “hobby project”.
The man and his partner eventually called triple-0 when their daughter’s condition worsened and she was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.
Blood tests later confirmed that the child had ingested opiates, sparking a police investigation that resulted in the man being charged with one count of administering poison with intent to harm and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

OxyContin is a strong painkiller used to treat patients of severe pain over extended time periods.
It is also a powerful narcotic and has been used as an artificial high, earning the nickname “hillbilly heroin”.
It could also be fatal.

The two-month-old baby was last night in a stable condition recovering at Gold Coast University Hospital while her father remained behind bars after facing court yesterday.
He was not required to say anything and spent most of his brief appearance staring at the floor.
The man made no application for bail and will face Southport Magistrates Court again on January 27.

Acting detective Inspector Greg Aubort, from the Gold Coast’s Child Protection Investigation Unit, said police would allege the child’s father had committed an act of “gross negligence”.
“We will be alleging he had put the child down and he was looking for an afternoon sleep and wanted some time for himself to do a hobby project,” Insp Aubort said.
“Parents have many strategies for ways of settling a child and this is clearly not one of them.
“(OxyContin) is a restricted drug and it is dangerous.

“It is not even in the ballpark to be considered to be given to an infant child.”
He said the child had responded well to treatment and there were unlikely to be any long-term ill-effects.
Doctor Tien Khoo, a senior lecturer in medical education at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus, said a child could die from an OxyContin overdose.

http://www.news.com.au/national/que...t/news-story/9b5c403d37df95fc7ca40dd58d0ca235

I am repulsed by these stories.

I remember taking a greyhound long ago and sitting next to a younger father.

He talked about drugs, and in no time was telling me his drug regimen for his young children, he said he would grind valium up into their food or drink.

I remember wanting to beat the shit out of him.

How on earth can people be so stupid and negligent?

People who do this are worse than those that use animals to smuggle drugs imo

Gross

It would be nice to read a story about Oxycontin/oxycodone that didn't mention the phrase "hillbilly heroin". Oxycodone is an extremely useful analgesic drug (its importance pharmacologically is covered decently in this book) and I think it gets unfairly demonized (constantly)

This young father needs to be educated.
He made a very stupid mistake, risking the life of his child, for extremely selfish reasons.
Or, to quote someone I respect, "gross".

However, "with intent to harm" seems to be a bit off.
This guy was clearly just uneducated, selfish, and trying to help in his pathetic way.

sparking a police investigation that resulted in the man being charged with one count of administering poison with intent to harm and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

Click to expand...

slimvictor said:

This young father needs to be educated.
He made a very stupid mistake, risking the life of his child, for extremely selfish reasons.
Or, to quote someone I respect, "gross".

However, "with intent to harm" seems to be a bit off.
This guy was clearly just uneducated, selfish, and trying to help in his pathetic way.

Click to expand...

What the fuck are you talking about? How was he trying to help? He was trying to help himself to have a nice sound slumber. Then your comment about intent to harm seems off,what 22 year old would think it's not harmful giving a child(baby) oxy is beyond me. If anything the demonization(usually over done) of this drug is saturated in society and if anything people would be overly cautious giving this med to another person let alone a baby. You are fucking nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes he does need to be educated and I'd teach him with a fucking bat to his face!!!!

^ Sounds like you and I took away different understandings of the story.
It seems to me that he was trying to quiet his baby.
He assumed - ignorantly - that the drug would help calm her.
If you took away a different message, is it possible that it is due to the writer's slant?
Do you have the full, unbiased story? Do you trust the article to determine the fate of the guy?
I guess you do, with your threats against him. Better have deep faith that the writer didn't impart some limited perspective in the article.

On a related note, do you have any children?
I do, and when they were babies, it was so painful to me when they were upset and couldn't be calmed.
It makes a parent - especially a new/young parent - crazy with uncertainty and suffering.
I knew better than to give them dangerous drugs, but not everyone knows this.
So I am open to the possibility that the guy was just uneducated.
However, you seem closed to that possibility.
That's ok - maybe you have a better source for this news.

How was he trying to help? He was trying to help himself to have a nice sound slumber.

Click to expand...

Do you think that parents don't need to or deserve to sleep?
Do you think it is possible to be a decent parent while sleep deprived?
Do you know how many times he woke up the past week to check on his baby and help her?
Did he get more than 1 hour sleep in a row at any point in the past month?
I don't know, and I suspect that you don't know either.
So, while I don't condone giving most unprescribed drugs to children (maybe things like tylenol are an exception), I admit that I don't know the whole story.
Maybe you should consider whether you know the whole story before promising that you would seek vengeance with an act that would get you imprisoned.

In any case, I would ask you to drop the personal attacks.

You are fucking nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

No, we simply read different things in the article.
We are here to discuss, not to attack those who don't see things our way.

You are right I'm sorry for getting personal. I do have children and that's why I take it personal. I dealt with many sleepless nights(first child had colic)and would never entertain the notion of drugging my child so I can sleep. I find this guys actions disgusting and think he has no defense that I would be satisfied with!Sorry just my position!!!!

Also I see it from the perspective he wanted to sleep and he wanted to work on his project. yes I guess I'm looking through the writers eyes but that is the only perspective I have to go on. No matter what though to me his actions are unacceptable and unforgiveable!!!

^ Hey, I am with you. I find it incomprehensible that someone would give such a strong drug to a child without having a much better reason (and a doctor's orders). My first child cried much of the time until he was 4, day and night, so I know about sleep deprivation, and praying that my child finally goes to sleep after my wife and I both spending 2 hours to help him calm down, and he just sits up again and begins crying again. So I get you about taking it personally. I just don't trust much of what I read in newspapers, and I try to keep an open mind about people who do outrageously stupid things - maybe they are just uneducated, and not necessarily evil.

In any case, no worries. Let's keep the discussion flowing and help contribute to BL.

Peace, Dad / Mom.

How stupid must this guy be to not realize a baby can't handle an adult dose(and quite possibly any dose)of oxy? I mean I know some really dumb people who still realize that you can't feed a baby opiates to shut it up. I just hope he (and maybe others hearing about it) can learn from this. What if nothing had happened to the baby that time and they didn't need to call an ambulance? Would he have just gone on feeding it oxy every time it was upset? It's scary how ignorant parents can be. Just glad the baby is alright though.

I kind of agree with slim on this one. What's telling to me is how much the police knew based on what he told them. If he knew he had done something so terribly wrong, he probably would have just told the authorities that he got into his stash, he accidentally ingested it, or he had no idea what happened to him. giving that kind of information before being charged seems pretty stupid if you knew you were in the wrong. most likely just didn't understand his actions and the legal consequences of those actions.

...but still 'gross' and idiotic. benadryl would have prob been a better option. wish more parents on flights knew about its wondrous hypnotic properties.

been years since i've heard hillbilly heroin, thought that originated in the southern states where the oxy found its legs. didn't know it made its way down under but always gotta kick out of that. heroin is legal in some places as a painkiller but it seems to get a reaction out of people so the media can get a shock or two. wait until they find out its more potent than heroin too.

...has been used as an artificial high...

Click to expand...

lulz...might be fake happiness but the high is real. not too shabby either. calmed me down more than once...or something.

I think it's entirely possible to label this guy's actions as abhorrent, dangerous and stupid while also acknowledging that sleep deprivation is literal torture that makes people extremely desperate. New parents can be pushed to do some pretty extreme things by sleepless babies. That's obviously not an excuse to feed a baby prescription opiates, but there's no need to trivialise the human need for sleep.

slimvictor said:

Or, to quote someone I respect, "gross".

Click to expand...

Slim to say that a respect is mutual would be a silly rediculouse understatement. Hope are very, very well.

neversickanymore said:

Slim to say that a respect is mutual would be a silly rediculouse understatement. Hope are very, very well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words.
Life can be a roller-coaster here, but overall it is pure beauty.
Hope you are doing wonderfully.

I don't know a parent alive who doesn't dose up their infant child with Phenergan (promethazine) to knock them out during a long haul flight.

Obviously oxy is a completely different beast and it doesn't take the sharpest tool in the shed to consider this pretty fucking dumb. Then again so is knocking up your girlfriend at 22 in this day and age.

Fucking idiot. Glad the baby was okay.
On a different note, since when is Oxycodone "hillbilly heroin" in Straya?

One Thousand Words said:

I don't know a parent alive who doesn't dose up their infant child with Phenergan (promethazine) to knock them out during a long haul flight.

Obviously oxy is a completely different beast and it doesn't take the sharpest tool in the shed to consider this pretty fucking dumb. Then again so is knocking up your girlfriend at 22 in this day and age.

Click to expand...

I never heard of this happening before , then again I live in a country where using drugs when not absolutely necessary is frowned upon . The worst that happens here is 12 year olds getting prescribed uppers for behavioural problems.