EMILY McDONALD - 3 yo (2009) - Austin TX

A Travis County jury has indicted Emily Beth McDonald, 23, for
intentionally causing serious bodily injury to her 3-year-old daughter
by contaminating her child's medical device with feces.

A grand jury indicted her for using and exhibiting a deadly weapon to cause serious
injury or death. In one of the most disturbing cases of child
abuse, investigators say McDonald admitted to rubbing feces into the
toddler's feeding tube (IV line) on multiple occasions at the hospital. All
the while, the mother kept a daily blog of her daughter's illness and
her attempts to recover. Austin police say every time McDonald's
daughter started to improve, the child would get sick again. Police
say McDonald brought her daughter to the hospital on April 15 with a
high fever and an infection caused by bacteria commonly found in feces. Hospital
staff became suspicious and installed a video surveillance camera in
the victim's room. On May 31st, police say that camera captured the
mother rubbing feces into her daughter's feeding tube. Emily
McDonald got a lot of attention according to a daily blog she
maintained called the "McDonald Five". In it she describes her three
year old's treatment and her two other children, ages 6 and 4. Investigators
wouldn't speculate on McDonald's mental state, but say she has never
been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Her two other children are
staying with their father's parents. McDonald's bond is set at $100,000 dollars.

STATEMENT RELEASED FROM SETON FAMILY OF HOSPITALS:
Emily McDonald was a March of Dimes NICU Family Support volunteer at Seton Medical Center Austin from July 2008 to April 2009. As a March of Dimes volunteer she offered parent-to-parent support to families with infants who were being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit. McDonald did not have direct patient contact and was under the supervision of the NICU staff while volunteering. Consistent with Seton Family of Hospitals’ policies for screening volunteers, Seton conducted a criminal background check on McDonald which showed no offenses. A criminal background check conducted by the March of Dimes also showed no offenses. While a volunteer, Seton received no reports of complaints regarding McDonald. In April 2009, McDonald ended her service as a volunteer.

Greg Hartman
Senior Vice President
Seton Family of Hospitals

A Texas woman charged with poisoning her youngest daughter could be jailed
after being found with a 3-year-old child, prosecutors say.
Emily Beth McDonald has been free on her own recognizance since her
arrest last year and living with her parents in Manor, Texas. One
condition of her release was that she not have any contact with children.
Assistant Travis County Prosecutor Jackie Wood said a Child
Protective Services agent said she found McDonald sitting with a
3-year-old when she made an unannounced visit last week, the Austin
American-Statesman reported Tuesday. In a motion to revoke McDonald's
bond, Wood said she is a "great danger to children."
McDonald allegedly admitted putting excrement on an intravenous line
while her daughter was hospitalized. The little girl had fever and tests
showed she had been infected with bacteria normally found in feces.
Bob Phillips, McDonald's lawyer, said in May she needs "treatment and counseling."

A woman accused of smearing feces on a catheter leading into her
daughter’s bloodstream was taken into custody after she was found by a
child welfare official this month with a child, a violation of her
pretrial release, a judge ruled Friday.

State District Judge Julie Kocurek granted a prosecutor’s motion to revoke Emily Beth McDonald’s bond.

On July 20, a Child Protective Services worker made an unannounced
visit to McDonald’s parents’ home in Manor and found McDonald, who had
been living at the property, with a child of about 3 at her side. The
child was McDonald’s niece.

“I don’t consider this to be a superficial violation of the strict
non-contact rule,” Kocurek said. “Frankly, it’s almost absurd to think
children could be within that house and on that property.”

McDonald, 24, who could face up to life in prison on an injury to a
child charge, had been free since her June 2009 arrest on a personal
recognizance bond. As a condition of the bond, which was initially
signed by state District Judge Charlie Baird, Kocurek ordered McDonald
not to have contact with any children.

At a May hearing, McDonald’s lawyers unsuccessfully requested that
Kocurek allow her supervised visitation with her children, who at the
time were 4, 5 and 7.

It was her youngest child that McDonald is accused of injuring in May 2009, at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

“The defendant placed her hand on the child’s head and stated, ‘Now
that you are awake, I have to go upstairs,’ and left the room,” stated a
motion to revoke the bond by prosecutor Jackie Wood.

Wood had argued in the motion that McDonald’s actions and the nature
of the accusations against her “indicate that she is a great danger to
children.”

“The defendant’s flagrant disregard for the court’s order” also illustrates the danger, Wood wrote.

In her testimony, however, CPS worker Christi Waeltz said she could not be sure McDonald had touched her niece’s head.

McDonald’s lawyer, Bob Phillips, told Kocurek that McDonald was aware
of the non-contact provisions and was simply announcing to her niece
that she had to leave her side because she had woken up and come into
the same room.

“The niece woke up and she immediately started toward her side of the house,” Phillips said.

Phillips called as a witness Kimberly Legge, an officer with Travis
County’s pretrial services who met regularly with McDonald and monitored
her movements. Legge testified that McDonald was mindful of the
non-contact rules and testified that if McDonald was trying to avoid the
niece she would have been acting consistently with the non-contact
rule.

But Wood said she should not have been anywhere near children. McDonald’s infant nephew was also on the property.

“The court was very clear with defense counsel and defendant that
there was to be no contact with children,” Wood said. “She knew children
were there, and she should have never walked into that house.”

McDonald’s daughter was admitted to Dell Children’s on April 15,
2009, with a high fever and “a long history of chronic diarrhea,”
according to an arrest affidavit. Blood tests came back positive for
bacteria commonly found in feces.

Hospital officials eventually set up a hidden camera in the girl’s
room after she continued to have setbacks in her recovery and after they
had to replace her intravenous lines several times because of
infections or clots, the affidavit said.

On May 31, hospital staff reviewed the footage and saw McDonald
smearing feces on a cap to the girl’s central venous line, the affidavit
said.

A central venous line is a catheter, often inserted into a patient’s
chest or neck, that leads to a vein or directly into the heart. It
allows the quick insertion of medication or fluids and allows monitoring
of cardiovascular health.

McDonald told police that she had smeared feces on the line cap five
times during her daughter’s six-week hospital stay, the affidavit said.

In May, McDonald’s lawyer, Phillips, said McDonald’s two youngest
children were living with her husband, who is their father, and the
oldest child is living with her own father. Phillips has called McDonald
a “troubled young woman” who “needs treatment and counseling.”

He said Friday that he would vigorously contest the charges against her.