A child developed a life-threatening infection after being repeatedly drugged by her mother, a judge has found.
The unprescribed medication was administered for more than a year and led to the girl needing a long stay at a children’s hospital, unable to eat or drink and needing 10 blood transfusions.
The judge found her mother’s actions caused the girl, now aged 15, to also suffer significant emotional and psychological harm.
Two other women accused of harming their children in the same way at the same hospital around the same time were found to have not done so following a Family Court hearing.
The children were all long stay patients – often on the same ward – at Sheffield Children’s Hospital during 2020 and 2021.
Each came from separate, previously unconnected families but developed unexplained medical problems that led to their mothers being arrested.
The women, who had all stayed with their children at the hospital, were accused of making their children ill by administering unprescribed drugs and by deliberately contaminating their feeding lines with faecal material.
All the children made a rapid recovery after their mothers were arrested.
