A woman who was about to give birth asked a friend to give her an injection of heroin and methamphetamine before she got into an ambulance, US police said.
Police in Concord, New Hampshire, arrested 29-year-old Felicia Falluja this week, about six months after her son was born. He remains in state custody.
Police also arrested Liana Frenette, 37, of Belmont, who they say supplied Falluja with the drugs. Both women are charged with felony reckless conduct; Frenette also faces a misdemeanor charge of the same offense.
“Honestly, this incident is absolutely horrifying to me,” said Lt. Shawn Ford. “Nobody died, but the danger to the child and the mother … this is getting out of control.”
Both men were released from custody on Wednesday (US time). Bail was set at $25,000 (AUD33,000) for Frenette and $15,000 (AUD19,000) for Falluja.
It was not immediately clear whether they had attorneys, and the Concord public defender’s office said it had no record of the cases being assigned.
Police arrested Felicia Falluja about six months after her son was born. Photo: AP
Police said Frenette used a non-sterile syringe at least once to try to inject Falluja, but was successful.
Fallujah’s boyfriend then called 911. Firefighters arrived shortly thereafter, and Fallujah gave birth on the way to the ambulance.
While at the hospital, the baby’s condition was stable but he was breathing rapidly, which could have had several causes: The baby’s urine tested positive for methamphetamines and amphetamines; the mother’s urine tested positive for those drugs and benzodiazepines, according to the police affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Falluja said she went into labor so she went to the bathroom and lay down on the floor.
She screamed about the pain of labour and cried, saying she couldn’t do it anymore, so she asked Ms Frenette to come inside.
She stated that Frenette had heroin and told her “it would dull the pain.” She stated that she did not stop Frenette from injecting her.
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But Frenette told police that when she went into the bathroom she saw Falluja trying to inject himself, with a broken needle, effectively “cutting himself.”
Frenette said he took a used needle provided by someone and “probably injected more than half” of the substance in the needle, then injected the rest into Falluja, after which an ambulance was called.
Frenette told police that what he did was wrong but said Falluja would have injected himself with more of what he believed to be heroin if he hadn’t intervened, and that Frenette himself was likely high on methamphetamine.
Both women have criminal histories. Mr. Falluja has also been involved in “guardianship of a minor” cases, separate child support petitions and custody petitions dating back to 2005.
A spokesman for the state Department of Health, which oversees the Department of Children, Youth and Families, said he could not confirm whether the department was involved in the case because of client confidentiality.