Baby Tests Positive for Drugs
Posted on: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 09:00 CST
By Karl Fischer, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
Mar. 8--Emergency room workers phoned El Cerrito police Tuesday morning after discovering that a wildly agitated, 10-month-old patient might have ingested methamphetamine.
Authorities transferred the boy from Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo to Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, where he will spend several days in treatment, El Cerrito detective Cpl. Don Horgan said. The child is expected to survive.
The baby's 17-year-old mother and her boyfriend went to Doctors about midnight Tuesday because the baby cried inconsolably and moved spastically, police said. Medical staff called police at 12:51 a.m., as law requires them to do when they find signs of possible child abuse, after running a urine test.
The test detected amphetamine, a substance found in some over-the-counter medicines and also in street drugs, such as methamphetamine.
"At the time of the initial test, the officers who went to the hospital were told by the staff that they had pretty much ruled out that this was cold medicine," Horgan said. "At this point, we are proceeding with an investigation with the working theory that this was an illegal drug."
The mother, whom police did not identify, was surprised to learn the test result and does not appear to be a methamphetamine user, police said. Detectives spent Tuesday morning searching the mother's home on Manila Avenue in El Cerrito but found neither drugs nor paraphernalia.
"Nobody's pointing the finger at this point," Horgan said. "This case remains under investigation. At this point, the source of the methamphetamine is unknown."
The living space shared by the mother and child appeared to be clean, Horgan added. But there were problems at the house.
Officers called Contra Costa Adult Protective Services after finding a 79-year-old woman, the baby's great-grandmother, in bad physical condition at the house. The woman appeared to have Alzheimer's disease or a similar condition and showed signs of neglect, Horgan said. She was brought to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Richmond, where she stayed Tuesday.
Police on Tuesday afternoon had not spoken to all residents of the house, which included four generations of the same family. Detectives did contact the Contra Costa County agency that provides child protective services, which is investigating whether the home is safe for the child, Horgan said.
While social workers frequently see cases of children born with illegal drugs in their systems, cases involving young children ingesting drugs are not common, said Lynn Yaney, spokeswoman for Contra Costa County's Employment and Human Services Department.
Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Source: Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)
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