Mother suspected of putting bleach in toddler’s eyedrops

A Pierce County woman is charged with assault of a child
in the first degree for allegedly putting bleach in her
toddler’s eye drops, causing what will likely be permanent
eye damage.

The 13-month-old girl arrived at the emergency
room at Seattle Children’s Hospital last year with
swelling in her eyes, sensitivity to light, scratched
corneas and a mild infection. She was sent to the
Opthalmology Department, treated and sent home. But she
didn’t get better. It was weeks before the horrible truth
about her injuries was revealed.

Over the following days and weeks, the child’s
parents repeatedly brought the toddler back to Children’s.
She was given the standard treatment, including
antibiotics and eyedrops, for a common problem. Still, she
didn’t improve.

Childrens’ chief of opthalmology, Doctor Avery
Weiss says with each visit, they did more diagnostic work
and even quizzed the mother. “I’m sure we asked her, ‘What
are you putting on the eye?'” recalled Weiss. Her answer,
“The antibiotics that you prescribed.”

The child was hospitalized for three days and her
condition improved. That told doctors that it was possible
the mother was doing something to her toddler. Again, she
was sent home.

“I wanted to be 100 percent sure so what I really
wanted was some evidence outside the eye of child abuse
and then when the child represented with a subdural
hematoma, I said, ‘This mother’s abusing this child.'”
said Weiss.

With the brain hemorrhage and other injuries,
Child Protective Services was called. The eyedrops were
confiscated and opened, letting out a noxious smell. The
hospital could not identify the substance in the eyedrops
but the F.B.I. eventually did. It was household bleach.

>>See photos of the child’s injuries:
WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES

Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist announced Monday
that Jennifer Lynn Mothershead, 29, of Buckley is charged
with assault of a child in the first degree. If convicted,
she faces 93 to 123 months in prison. Lindquist said he
would seek an exceptional sentence beyond the high end of
the standard range, based on the child’s exceptional
vulnerability.

Mothershead pleaded not guilty. A judge set bail at
$150,000.

Dr. Weiss says his department sees child abuse
just about weekly, usually the result of head trauma. “But
we’re not used to seeing child abuse of this nature where
someone is instilling something in the eye,” he said.
Weiss admits he’s never seen a case of tainted eyedrops.

Weiss authored a report for a medical journal, the
April issue of the Journal of American Association of
Pediatric Opthalmology and Strabismus, highlighting this
case as a reminder that opthalmologists should consider
and investigate child abuse when treating patients who
don’t respond to typical treatment.

In the case of the little girl from Buckley, “we
went back and analyzed each of her visits and there were
signs of child abuse from the very beginning,” said Weiss.
He concedes that even doctors who regularly see child
abuse don’t want to believe it.

The little girl is getting a little better, now
able to open her eyes in a darkened room. But she still
has extreme irritation and reduced vision. “This will be a
lifetime problem for her, I suspect,” said Weiss.