Girl Wearing Pain Patch Dies; Foster Mother Charged - New York Times

Girl Wearing Pain Patch Dies; Foster Mother Charged - New York Times

Sick Bastard!!


By AL BAKER
Published: May 20, 2008

A 6-year-old girl in foster care in Harlem died Sunday after her foster mother placed a powerful medicinal patch on her neck and sent her to bed to treat the child’s complaints of pain, the authorities said.

The little girl, Taylor Webster, was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan on Sunday evening and her foster mother, Joanne Alvarez, 54, was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide.

The antipain patch given to Taylor by Ms. Alvarez is known as a fentanyl transdermal patch, official said. When it is placed on the skin, it delivers a narcotic drug that is more powerful than morphine. Ms. Alvarez also gave Taylor Motrin painkillers by mouth, the police said.

Detectives from the New York Police Department and the office of Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, are investigating the case, particularly how Ms. Alvarez obtained the pain patch and for what purpose she had it. The city Medical Examiner’s office was conducting an autopsy on Monday, officials said.

“The mother gave the child Motrin and also put one of these medical patches on the child, and it appears that this may have caused the child’s death,” said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who spoke of the case after a City Council budget hearing on Monday. “So it’s under investigation.”

Mr. Kelly said the case was a crime because of the severity of the negligence.

“You can have negligence and you can have gross negligence that rises to the level of criminality,” Mr. Kelly said. “It really has to do with the gross aspect of the negligence, as to whether or not it rises to the level of criminality.”

An official in Mr. Morgenthau’s office said that a criminal complaint was being drawn up against Ms. Alvarez and that she was expected to be arraigned before a judge sometime on Monday evening.

Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the city’s Administration for Children’s Services said the incident was under investigation.

It was unclear why Taylor was in foster care or how long she had been in the care of Ms. Alvarez. Generally, children are placed in foster care by the city’s child welfare agency after they suffer some kind of abuse or neglect at the hands of their biological parents.

The incident unfolded inside the 11th-floor apartment of Ms. Alvarez at 1345 Fifth Avenue, in the Taft Houses, the police said. It began around 11 p.m. on Saturday when Taylor complained of pain. Ms. Alvarez, who lives in the apartment with an adult child, put the pain patch on Taylor’s neck — in the area of her Carotid artery — and also gave her the Motrin, the police said.

The next day, at about 3 p.m., Ms. Alvarez was discovered lying in her bed and not breathing, the police said. Police officers were called and the girl was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead at 5:10 p.m., officials said.

In speaking with investigators, Ms. Alvarez said she had been prescribed the pain patch, but she could not provide the name of a physician and the prescription has not yet been confirmed.

“We have not verified where she got this patch,” said one official who said the patch is usually prescribed for adults, not children.