TODDLER "K.L.M" - 14 months (2012)/ Convicted: Mother; Jennifer L. Mothershead - Tacoma WA

Mother accused of putting bleach in infant daughter's eyes

By KOMO Staff
Published: Apr 30, 2012 at 1:16 PM PDT Last
Updated: Apr 30, 2012 at 1:57 PM PDT

TACOMA, Wash. -- A Buckley mother accused of putting bleach on her infant daughter's eyes pleaded not guilty Monday.

Jennifer L. Mothershead turned herself in to police on Friday and is being held for investigation of first-degree assault.

Mothershead's 14-month-old daughter was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center on May 12, 2011 for a head injury, but doctors also found some bruising and eye infection, according to the statement of probable cause.

Showing no emotion to the trauma of having her daughter airlifted, the mother said she had no idea what caused the head injury, only claiming that a friend was caring for her just before it happened, prosecutors wrote. The documents didn't give any other details about the head injury.

But asked about the eye infection, the mother said her daughter's eyes had been swollen shut for about four weeks and that the issue began two months' prior when her daughter got a scratch on her eye while playing in a barn, documents said.

She said her daughter was given antibiotics and eye drops for the infection, and that she was primary person to put them in her daughter's eyes as she and her husband are separated.

But when the daughter was placed into protective custody at the hospital for the head injury, the mother said she needed to go get the eye drops from the hospital room.

Detectives said they would make sure the girl gets her proper medication, but when hospital staff later opened the container, they noticed a strong fumes smell that caused their eyes to burn, prosecutors said. A detective also investigated the bottle and noted the strong smell.

The bottle was sent out for testing and it was later determined to contain bleach, prosecutors said.

A doctor at Children's Hospital later told detectives the infant's eye infections were consistent with injuries caused by bleach, and whoever gave the initial diagnosis of a scratched eye was incorrect.

The girl's condition improved once removed from her mother's care, but doctors say her vision may never be normal and that some blindness in her right eye was permanent, documents said.

Mothershead is being held on $150,000 bail. The baby is now staying with her biological father.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Mother-accused-of-putting-bleach-in-infant-daughters-eyes-149552545.html

Doctors of Toddler Abused with Bleach Under Investigation

By JoNel Aleccia, MSNBC
May 17, 2012 Updated May 17, 2012 at 8:14 AM PDT

Seattle doctors who may have been slow to report abuse in a toddler whose mother allegedly put bleach in the child’s eyes -- nearly blinding her -- are under state investigation.

Officials at the Washington state Medical Quality Assurance Commission have filed a complaint and launched an inquiry into the care of the girl, now 2, at Seattle Children’s Hospital, a spokesman confirmed.

The girl, identified only as K.L.M., was treated for nearly two months for severe eye injuries in spring 2011, but only reported as a possible abuse victim after suffering a head injury that sent her to a trauma center.

Her mother, Jennifer Lynn Mothershead, 29, of Buckley, Wash., has been charged with first-degree child abuse linked to allegations that she substituted bleach in the child's medical eye drops and administered them repeatedly.

Internal commission staffers launched the probe this month after media coverage of the incident, said Donn Moyer, a state health department spokesman. “We’re unable to comment beyond acknowledging that we’re investigating,” he said.

Last month, msnbc.com reported that Dr. Avery H. Weiss, an ophthalmologist with the Roger Johnson Clinical Vision Laboratory at the hospital, said he suspected child abuse early in the weeks of treatment for unexplained eye damage and infections in March and April 2011.

By law, medical practitioners in Washington state are required to report child abuse or neglect “at the first opportunity,” or no later than 48 hours after there is “reasonable cause” to believe a child has been harmed. Failure to report child abuse is classified as a gross misdemeanor punishable by jail time or a fine, state statutes show.

But it wasn’t until May 12, 2011, that Weiss said he became certain. That day, the 14-month-old was flown to a nearby trauma center, Harborview Medical Center, with a subdural hematoma, or brain hemorrhage.

On April 26, after a nearly year-long probe, Pierce county detectives arrested Mothershead. Court documents allege that she replaced the child’s eye drops with household bleach, then repeatedly “swaddled” the girl and forced the caustic substance into her eyes.

Investigators learned about the abuse only after confiscating the prescription eye drops. When the bottle was opened, a “noxious smell” filled the room, according to reports. Witnesses reported mild nausea.

http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/Doctors-of-Toddler-Abused-with-Bleach-Under-Investigation-151881055.html

They should use that bleached eye cream on the mother's eyes and see how it feels. What a cruel inhumane person. I wish they could lock her up for life but she'll probably be out in no time breeding again.

Mom who bleached daughter's eyes gets 40 years

By Katherine Cavazini
updated3:02 PM EST, Fri November 22, 2013

A Washington mother was sentenced to 40 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of assaulting her 1-year-old daughter by putting bleach drops in her eyes in a 2011 incident.  

Jennifer Mothershead, 31, was convicted of first-degree assault of a child on October 4. Jurors also found aggravating factors that show she exhibited deliberate cruelty to a vulnerable victim, amounting to torture.

Mothershead’s attorney, Jane Pierson, argued for the minimum sentence of 7 years, while prosecutors argued for 50 years, citing the aggravating factors.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department began investigating the case in May 2011 when Mothershead’s 1-year-old daughter was airlifted to the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for a head injury.

While the child was being treated for the head injury, hospital staffers noticed that the 1-year-old girl’s previously diagnosed eye condition had worsened, according to court documents.

During an interview, the victim’s mother told authorities her daughter’s eye became infected in March of 2011 after she had been playing in a barn and developed a corneal abrasion. The victim was prescribed antibiotics and eye drops, which were given to her by her mother.

Court document filed by the defense state that Mothershead took her daughter to several follow-up medical visits.

“Typical instructions were to apply ointments, to expect cross-contamination of one eye to the other, a trial use of steroids, and, finally, toward the end, a trial of eye drops,” Pierson said in the documents.

However, Mothershead told police that her daughter’s eye had had been swollen shut for weeks and that she had been sleeping for 20-22 hours a day due to the discomfort, according to the probable cause statement. She said that her daughter had to be “swaddled” when the eye drops and antibiotics were administered due to the pain.

Investigators say they became suspicious when a hospital staffer told police that upon opening the child’s medication a “noxious odor filled the room,” causing burning eyes and mild nausea for staff, court documents state.  

During the investigation, a detective said when she opened the container of eye drops, a strong chemical odor emanated from the bottle. A short time later, the detective said her skin turned red and she experienced a burning sensation on a portion of her skin that had been exposed.

Authorities then sent the eye drops to a forensic chemistry lab for analysis, and scientists determined the drops contained bleach, according to the probable cause statement.

“The damage to the victim’s eye was consistent with repeated exposure to bleach,” the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

The 1-year-old girl sustained permanent vision loss in her right eye, but a doctor said her condition immediately improved when she was removed from her mother’s care.

“It would take a significant amount of bleach, consistently applied, to cause the damage,” a doctor told police, according to court documents.

Mothershead was arrested in April 2012. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment.

HLN was unable to reach Pierson for a comment Thursday. However, in court documents, Pierson stated, “Ms. Mothershead loves both of her daughters with every fiber of her being. She has not, nor would she ever do anything to intentionally harm either of her children.”

The victim, now 3, lives with her father.

Mothershead is currently serving her sentence at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. A judge required her to undergo a mandatory mental-health evaluation, and to have no contact with the victim for life.

“I know this is the time the court wants to hear me admit what I have done, but I cannot do that here,” Mothershead said at sentencing, the News Tribune reported. “I never put anything in (her) eyes that the doctor did not prescribe.”

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/11/22/mother-who-bleached-daughters-eyes-gets-40-years

I'm glad she didn't get a slap on the wrist.  Maybe someone will bleach her eyes while she's in there.