Child Endangerment & Suicide Attempt Paxil 03/07/2004 New York Mother Turns Gas On While Children are Near Summary:

MoParagraph four reads: "Police say the woman had also taken about 60 pills; a combination of the painkiller Lortab, the anti-depressant Paxil and ibuprofen".

http://www.fox23news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=A97A0F1A-0B4E-4DD1-8FA1-D4B6A34A0E12

Albany Mother Being Treated After Suicide Attempt

Responding to a 9-1-1 call from a concerned friend, police last night found a mother trying to kill herself in her apartment here in Albany's central towers.

Police say the mother, whose name is not being released yet, had locked herself and her two children in the apartment.

She had also closed all the windows, dismantled a carbon monoxide detector and turned the gas on.

Police say the woman had also taken about 60 pills; a combination of the painkiller Lortab, the anti-depressant Paxil and ibuprofen.

"There's no way of knowing if she had passed out whether the ten year-old or the five year-old would have been able to get outside of that apartment or would have known enough to get outside that apartment," says Albany Police Detective James Miller. "They could have been overcome by obviously the carbon monoxide and just fell asleep and died."

It was also a potentially dangerous situation for neighbors in this 22-story apartment building. If the natural gas in the ninth floor apartment had ignited and exploded, the results could have been disastrous.

"She needs help," says Amanda Nicholson who lives on the twentieth floor in the building. "That's what she needs. She really needs to get it together. I mean, her is one thing. But to try to take her kids out, she definitely needs to go to the hospital."

That has already happened.

"The mother was taken to the psychiatric center for evaluation," says Miller. "That's where she is right now."

After her evaluation is complete. The mother will be answering to a judge. She's facing charges of reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. Her two children are now with their father.