A mother from Indiana who injected fecal matter into the child's IV tube while in the hospital was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday. The child was undergoing treatment for cancer when the incident occurred. A spokesman with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office said that the mother is set to serve five years of probation following her sentence.
Tiffany Alberts was convicted for six counts of aggravated battery and one count of neglect in September this year. The court records said that Alberts was found not guilty for the attempted murder charge that was pressed against her.
A story that began in 2016
Alberts' son was undergoing chemotherapy at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. According to reports, the boy was undergoing treatments since August 2016. He was discharged and brought back to the hospital in September of 2016 with symptoms of an infection. When the blood works were done it showed the presence of organisms that can be seen in fecal matter. The extensive medical evaluation could not explain the situation.
The hospital believed that someone might be contaminating the medical care provided to the boy. They put the boy under video surveillance to find out that the mother was injecting a substance to his central line. In an initial statement given to the police, the suspect said that she was injecting water into the tube to flush out the medicine because he was feeling a burning sensation while it was being administered.
The mother on further probing admitted to injecting her son's own fecal matter into the tube to get better treatment. The infection led the doctor's to stop the boy's chemo and concentrate on flushing out the infection. This affected his survival and relapse rate. The boy could have had a septic shock due to his mother's actions.
Presently she is being sentenced with seven years in prison followed by five years of probation one count of neglect and six counts of aggravated battery.
