The two crimes of attempted aggravated murder that the mother is accused of allegedly took place between December 31, 2024, and January 2, 2025, while the baby was hospitalized at Coimbra Pediatric Hospital due to health issues, having undergone a procedure to protect the airways.
The indictment, which was accessed by the agency Lusa, reveals that the child suffers from a genetic disease that causes intellectual and physical developmental disorders, recurrent airway infections, and brain and skeletal abnormalities.
During the hospitalization, the child’s mother stayed with him consistently, sometimes staying overnight in the intensive care unit where the victim was treated.
In two incidents during the baby’s hospitalization, the defendant is accused by the Public Prosecutor (MP) of disconnecting the ventilation tube placed in her son’s throat and inserting pieces of cotton and paper balls from a word search book into the cannula applied to an orifice near the victim’s trachea—objects that became lodged in the baby’s bronchi.
In the first incident, the baby experienced two episodes of “severe desaturation” (a sharp drop in blood oxygen levels) and slow heart rate. In the second incident, the victim went into cardiorespiratory arrest and suffered bleeding from the mouth and nostrils, requiring resuscitation by the medical team.
As of the indictment in July, the baby remained hospitalized at the Pediatric Hospital without a scheduled discharge date, with concerns that the mother’s actions may have had “permanent consequences” on the victim’s development.
