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Ecstasy overdose baby parents bailed in Cairns court
Article from: Herald Sun
Damon Guppy, Cairns Post
January 06, 2009 12:08pm
A YOUNG Victorian couple has been bailed after being charged with overdosing their baby with an ecstasy tablet.
The pair appeared in Cairns Magistrates' Court this morning charged with grievous bodily harm after their baby almost died after swallowing a drug, believed to be ecstasy, in Cairns on the weekend.
The pair, from Victoria, declined to speak to waiting media after their brief court appearance and left the court house together in a waiting taxi, the Cairns Post reports.
Their baby was today in a serious but stable condition in Cairns Base Hospital after going into cardiac arrest and being placed in an induced coma on Sunday.
Police allege she ingested half an ecstasy pill, a street drug that can produce serious symptoms.
Her condition has since improved and she has been transferred from the intensive care unit to the pediatrics ward.
Paramedics rushed to a unit at Behan St, Manunda, about 10.30am on Sunday, about 90 minutes after the baby suffered a seizure.
Detectives from the Child Protection and Investigation Unit and Cairns CIB searched the unit and questioned the father, 24, and mother, 22, for several hours on Sunday.
The pair, from Victoria, were yesterday charged with grievous bodily harm and possession of a dangerous drug.
They have been released on watch-house bail and are believed to be keeping a bedside vigil at the hospital as their daughter recovers.
She is expected to make a full recovery.
The couple will appear in court this morning.
The baby remains in their care but the Department of Child Safety is investigating the matter.
Police are not alleging the couple deliberately administered the drug to the toddler.
Police said the couple and their daughter were holidaying in Cairns over the Christmas and New Year period.
But a resident at the unit complex said they had moved to the city and the father had recently taken up a job.
Medical experts say the drug can cause brain damage and organ failure.
The baby, was put into an induced coma after suffered fits and convulsions after swallowing half a tablet.
Ecstasy, which has been linked to deaths in adults, affects breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
Medical experts said half an ecstasy tablet for a two-month-old baby would be the equivalent of up to 10 tablets for an adult.
Royal Children's Hospital director of pharmacology associate Prof Noel Cranswick said the drug could cause serious effects.
"In young children in large doses it can be quite severe," Prof Cranswick said.
"They certainly can have seizures, become unconscious, and in lower doses become quite confused and act inappropriately.
"It can also affect the muscles and make them very hot, so hot you have to physically cool the person down and it can cause damage to pretty much any organ in the body.
"If a child had a stroke or an organ was damaged then that would cause ongoing damage, but once the drug is out of the system you would not expect ongoing damage from the, drug but whatever damage there is would have long-term consequences, like brain damage from a prolonged seizure."
Medical experts yesterday said most two-month-old babies did not have the co-ordination to pick up small objects such as a tablet, let alone the swallowing mechanism to consume such an item.
Doctors said cases of parents giving their children illegal drugs were rare.
An analysis of 165 NSW child deaths between 1991 and 2005, published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, found five involved children being given methadone.
Psychiatrist Olav Nielssen said in most cases, parents had given their children methadone intending to sedate them, rather than kill.
"The findings of this study suggest that takeaway methadone should not be given to addicts with children in their care," Dr Nielssen said.
With Janelle Miles and Peter Michael
Herald Sun