Ecstasy baby couple face Cairns court
By Janelle Miles and Peter Michael
The Courier-Mail
January 06, 2009 12:01am
THE parents of a 10-week-old baby girl whose heart stopped after she was allegedly given the illegal party drug ecstasy will appear in Cairns Magistrate's Court today.
The baby, who at one stage went into cardiac arrest, was taken to Cairns Base Hospital suffering "fits and convulsions" on Sunday after allegedly being fed half an ecstasy tablet.
She was immediately put in an induced coma and treated in intensive care and was last night reported to be in a serious but stable condition in the Cairns Base Hospital.
Detectives from the Cairns Child Protection and Investigation Unit yesterday charged a 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman from Victoria with one count each of grievous bodily harm and possessing a dangerous drug.
Police allege the couple was holidaying in Cairns over the Christmas and New Year period when the baby was brought to the Cairns Base Hospital in a critical condition.
Ambulance officers were called to a Cairns home about 10.30am on Sunday and found the baby in a serious condition.
Authorities suspect the infant had been given half an ecstasy tablet about 90 minutes prior to their arrival.
Investigations into the incident are continuing.
Medical experts yesterday said most two-month-old babies did not have the fine motor skills necessary to pick up small objects such as a tablet let alone the swallow mechanism to consume such an item.
But doctors say cases of parents giving their children illegal drugs are rare.
Ecstasy, which has been linked to deaths in adults, can affect breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
An analysis of 165 NSW child killings between 1991 and 2005, published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, found that five children's deaths involved them being given methadone.
Sydney-based psychiatrist Olav Nielssen said that, in most cases, parents had given their children methadone intending to sedate them, rather than kill them.
"The findings of this study suggest that take-away methadone should not be given to addicts with children in their care," Dr Nielssen said.
Courier-Mail