Furious Seasons

February 06, 2007

A Bipolar Child Murdered

What the hell do you say about a thing like this? A four-year-old girl, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was found dead in her parents home in December near Boston, according to a press account. Now, her parents stand charged with her murder by allegedly over-dosing their girl with clonidine, an ADD drug. The kid was also found with Depakote and an antihistamine in her system. She had reportedly also been prescribed Seroquel.

I find it hard to believe that parents would purposely overdose their own child, but I find it doubly hard to believe that the kid could've OD'd herself. Anyone have any thoughts?

Posted by Philip Dawdy at February 6, 2007 12:03 AM

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Comments

THAT is the saddest story I have ever read.Oh my God.

Questions: why the hell was a 4 year old on adult medications?(since possibly age 2?)

Who's the doctor that prescribed the medications? why isn't he charged with something?

Who came up with the killer dosages? how on earth could a doc know what those med dosages should be in a little toddler.

Sounds like she was being treated with over the counter cold and cough medications along with the psychiatric medications, and there is no way those parents knew what should or shouldn't be taken with what medication.

Dextromethorphan can cause problems all on it's own in bipolar patients.

This is just horrific, what a nightmare.

Posted by: Stephany at February 5, 2007 11:59 PM

I'm very much in agreement with Stephany's assessment, however I'd like to add that we currently live in a culture where parents have lost faith in their own ability to raise a child. Such a parent will then seek to shore up their own perceived fears and failures with an "expert opinion".

Expert opinions are not the equivalent of care. An expert opinion does not possess the intimacy that comes from living day in and day out with another human being. An expert opinion cannot love your child on your behalf.

Tragically, there are parents who do murder their own children -- was that the intent of this girl's parents? I think I'd want more information including, who decided that a four-year-old child had a bi-polar disorder, who prescribed the drugs, what kind of information was dispensed to the child's parents along with it, and what was their home life like?

Posted by: spiritual_emergency at February 6, 2007 02:51 AM

I have to agree this is one of the most horrible and bizarre cases to cross my desktop in awhile. I'd love to know if the child's doctor was some academic shrink from Harvard -- it wouldn't surprise me. I don't think the parents deliberately overdosed her. Anything would be an overdose at the age of 4 and to combine those meds with cough syrup would seriously challenge an already challenged liver and send blood levels soaring. Still how naive can one set of parents be?! But shouldn't the blame go to the doctor and the drug industry for promoting this kind of use? Just what kind of informed consent did the parents really give we wonder?

Posted by: Sara at February 6, 2007 06:33 AM

Two parents, independently administering medications? In my house we two parents can barely manage to collaborate on feeding the goldfish.

Posted by: Matt Platte at February 6, 2007 07:42 AM

For heaven's sake, how do you figure out a 4-year-old kid is bipolar? And how the hell did she get an ADD drug?

Suspicious evidence abounds.

Posted by: Marissa Miller at February 6, 2007 10:01 PM