Death/Suspicious Med For Depression 01/03/2011 Australia Pospartum: Mother Finds 7 Week Old Infant Dead: Inquest Into Mother's Involvement
Death/Suspicious Med For Depression 2011-03-01 Australia Pospartum: Mother Finds 7 Week Old Infant Dead: Inquest Into Mother's Involvement
Summary:

First three paragraphs read:  "THE mother of a baby boy who died at the age of seven weeks was heavily over-medicated the day her infant son died, an inquest heard yesterday."

"Katrina Chapman, formerly of West Ridgley, told police during a recorded interview after her son's death that she was on medication for post-natal depression."

"Mrs Chapman, 33, had taken up to 10 pills rather than the one tablet prescribed on the morning of December 2, 2008."

Paragraphs seven and eight read:  "Mrs Chapman told police she had taken more medication that morning because she was feeling so anxious and the pills had made her more drowsy than usual."

" 'The pills were not working. I was still really, really depressed,' " she said in the interview."

Paragraphs twenty and twenty-one read:  "Mrs Chapman then rang her husband and an ambulance."

"She told police the baby had not been breathing after she woke up in bed with him, but the sound of a baby crying is audible on the recording of the 000 emergency call."


http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/03/02/211081_tasmania-news.html


March 2, 2011 02:36am


Tragic baby's mum on pills

 HELEN KEMPTON   |   March 02, 2011 02.00am

THE mother of a baby boy who died at the age of seven weeks was heavily over-medicated the day her infant son died, an inquest heard yesterday.

Katrina Chapman, formerly of West Ridgley, told police during a recorded interview after her son's death that she was on medication for post-natal depression.

Mrs Chapman, 33, had taken up to 10 pills rather than the one tablet prescribed on the morning of December 2, 2008.

The interview, recorded at the Burnie Police Station on December 23, 2009, was played yesterday when the inquest into Lennox Chapman's death continued in the Supreme Court in Burnie.

Mrs Chapman told police she had sole care of the baby for the first time on the day he died.

Her husband Geoff Chapman had returned to work and his parents were not at her West Ridgley home.

Mrs Chapman told police she had taken more medication that morning because she was feeling so anxious and the pills had made her more drowsy than usual.

"The pills were not working. I was still really, really depressed," she said in the interview.

She told police she was not in an appropriate state to be looking after her baby that day and she blamed herself for her son's death.

While Mrs Chapman denied she had ever confessed to anyone that she had deliberately harmed Lennox, she told police she had told family and friends that she was responsible for his death.

"I know if I hadn't taken him to bed with me that day it wouldn't have happened," she told police.

Mrs Chapman said she had fed Lennox on the morning of his death, put him in his swing and then given him a bath.

"I accidentally dropped him in the bath because I was so medicated," she told police.

"I went to pick him up out of the bath but got dizzy and fainted."

Mrs Chapman said Lennox had been under the water when she came to but he had appeared to be unharmed.

She dressed the baby, wrapped him in a rug and took him to her bed.

"I woke up half on top of him," she said.

She said her baby's face had been covered by her body.

"I noticed he was blue and I picked him up and shook him. Blood came out of his mouth," she said.

Mrs Chapman then rang her husband and an ambulance.

She told police the baby had not been breathing after she woke up in bed with him, but the sound of a baby crying is audible on the recording of the 000 emergency call.

The inquest, before magistrate Olivia McTaggart, continues today.