An Alabama mother is facing horrifying accusations after authorities say she killed her 17-month-old son by putting a deadly liquid mixture into his feeding tube.
Kaitlynn Dominick, 22, has been charged with manslaughter and aggravated child abuse in the death of her young son, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.
The child died on May 5 at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital after being brought there by his mother the day before.
Authorities said the little boy had a medical condition that required him to receive nourishment through a surgically implanted gastric feeding tube.
According to the sheriff’s office, Dominick took her son to the hospital on May 4. He died the following morning. Afterward, a physician at the hospital raised concerns with police over the child’s lab results.
Investigators said Dominick gave inconsistent statements about what happened.
Authorities later said she admitted to mixing a liquid solution and administering it to her son, which allegedly led to his death.
According to Cleveland 19 News and Fox 10 News, citing a criminal complaint, the mixture included table salt and another undisclosed liquid.
“There was a concoction, a liquid mixture, that was introduced into the child’s preexisting feeding tube that then led to this medical emergency that ultimately led to the child’s death,” Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Justin Correa told Cleveland 19 News.
Correa said the ingredients may not have affected a healthy adult in the same way, but the situation was far more dangerous for a 17-month-old child with existing medical conditions.
“In this mixture, the level of ingredients that were given to this child — maybe to an adult, a normal, healthy adult, might not have presented the way it did — but of course a child, a seventeen-month-old who has preexisting medical conditions, I think it could have [led] to a greater medical emergency,” Correa said.
Prosecutors have accused Dominick of intentionally harming her son so she could be relieved of caring for him, Cleveland 19 News and Fox 10 News reported.
Teresa Heinz, the Baldwin County chief assistant district attorney, told Cleveland 19 News that prosecutors believe Dominick understood the mixture would hurt the child.
“I do believe that she did know that this would harm the child … because she knew that if the child was taken to the hospital that there would be adequate [medical professionals] who would then be tending to that child,” Heinz said.
Dominick was booked into the Baldwin County jail on May 26 and released two days later, according to inmate records.
The Baldwin County Coroner’s Office and the Alabama Department of Human Resources are assisting the sheriff’s office in the investigation.
It was not immediately clear whether Dominick has an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
