WHAT A HEEL: Mother Smeared Feces On Daughter’s Catheter So Doctors Would Continue Treatment: Attorney
Emily Beth McDonald, 25, of Austin was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to second-degree injury to a child for smearing feces on her then-three-year-old daughter's IV catheter when the girl was hospitalized because of a high fever and chronic diarrhea. According to an arrest affidavit, hospital officials set up a hidden camera in her room after the girl continued to have setbacks, The Associated Press reports:
[McDonald] smeared feces on the girl's central venous line five times during her daughter's six-week hospital stay. A central line is a catheter inserted into a patient's chest or neck that leads to a vein or directly to the heart. It allows for the quick insertion of medication or fluids and monitors cardiovascular health.
Travis County prosecutor Rob Drummond said McDonald committed "medical child abuse."
"It doesn't have any other rationale than any other form of child abuse would have," he said. "Our goal in this case was to protect Emily McDonald's children and to hold her responsible."
The girl is now "thriving and well and going to be fine," Phillips said. She and McDonald's two other children now live with their respective fathers.
McDonald’s attorney, Bob Phillips, told the Austin American-Statesman that his client had good intentions – she wanted her daughter’s fever to spike so doctors wouldn’t withdraw antibiotic treatment - and her actions were “done with a pure heart.”
Had she not plead guilty to a lesser charge, McDonald could have been sentenced to life in prison if convicted of first-degree injury to a child.
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