Newborn Dies After Mom Eats Rat Poison

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The death of a three-day-old girl has been ruled a homicide. Indianapolis Metro Police say the newborn's mother ingested rat poison a week before she gave birth. While the mother sought treatment after taking the poison, it was too late for the baby.

Police say 34-year-old Bei Bei Shuai intentionally ingested rat poison on December 23rd.
[...]

When Shuai told friends in Anderson what she had done, they told her to go to St. Johns Hospital. She was then transferred to Methodist Hospital where she gave birth to a baby girl on New Year's Eve.

The baby girl, named Angel, lived just three days before passing away. After an autopsy on Monday, the coroner ruled the death a homicide, and the cause as consumption of rat poison.

At this point, police don't know if Shuai was trying to terminate the pregnancy or kill herself.

"We don't have any information to release about what a potential motive may have been," said Adams.

Experts say the antidote to rat poison, commonly vitamin K, could have saved the mother, but since the vitamin can't pass through the placenta, the fetus would have started to bleed. Eventually the baby bled to death.

"The two charges, if any that she may face, would one be murder and two attempted feticide," said Adams.

The baby's mother is currently on suicide watch in the mental health ward at Methodist Hospital. She has not been arrested but police say that could change after detectives get the chance to interview her.

Shuai moved to the United States from China ten years ago. She is a US citizen.

http://www.wthr.com/story/13773507/n...ing-rat-poison

[Nell]

If the friends took her to the hospital immediately why didn't they take the baby by C section that day? She may have lived.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

If the friends took her to the hospital immediately why didn't they take the baby by C section that day? She may have lived.

Good point. Although they may have not been able to operate on the mom or induce labor until her rat poison complications were over with.

[Silvahalo]

Nell, I was wondering about that too....emergency c-section.

She knowingly took the rat poison and even IF it was a suicide attempt, still, surely she knew she was putting her baby in grave danger. Suicide means you die with baby in tow.

It's so disgusting. She couldn't wait to give birth, give baby up then off herself if necessary, better yet seek help. No, she had to take it then. She meant to kill baby girl, I can hardly see it differently....bleed to death ffs, sick.

Rest in peace baby Angel Shuai you deserved far, far better for a mother.

[Tundratot]

The baby died three days after her birth. Couldn't they have given her vitamin K immediately after her birth? Infused her? WTF!!!

[totallytoddler]

The baby died three days after her birth. Couldn't they have given her vitamin K immediately after her birth? Infused her? WTF!!!

I thought they gave the vitamin k right after birth anyway...just is general??? They gave it to my kids. What a shame...could have just given baby up for adoption. :(

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The baby died three days after her birth. Couldn't they have given her vitamin K immediately after her birth? Infused her? WTF!!!

By the time she was born, she had been "exposed" to the poison for a week. Probably too much for her wee system. :(

[Nell]

I looked it up. They wouldn't give her a C Section because she may have bled out. I say they should have chanced it.

[Athena]

I don't think a mother should be charged with murder for something she did while the fetus was in utero that ended up killing the child days after birth. It just doesn't jive with the spirit of "murder".

[Pete Bondurant]

Police say 34-year-old Bei Bei Shuai intentionally ingested rat poison on December 23rd.

This child, so-called....was not of European origin, therefore...this woman did not commit a crime.

[HijabiGirl]

Most rat poison is Coumadin, a blood thinner prescribed for people prone to clots, atrial fib, or stroke. Therefore a c-section would be contraindicated in this case until they could reverse the drug. Coumadin can cross the placental barrier so it is not prescribed to pregnant women, heparin is prescribed instead. By the time the baby was delivered the damage was done and no amount of vit K could reverse it. I am willing to bet the baby had a brain bleed or maybe placental issues.

[Tundratot]

So, what you are saying is that the hospital staff had to watch helplessly as this little baby died over a three day period? Nothing they could do. That must have been the basis for some real emotional trauma in the NICU.

[Tundratot]

I don't think a mother should be charged with murder for something she did while the fetus was in utero that ended up killing the child days after birth. It just doesn't jive with the spirit of "murder".

In this case, I disagree. This isn't the same as going biking and falling off, or even drinking too heavily. The proximate time frame is very relevant, I think.

[Shadow]

So, what you are saying is that the hospital staff had to watch helplessly as this little baby died over a three day period? Nothing they could do. That must have been the basis for some real emotional trauma in the NICU.

yeah, i can only imagine the anguish the NICU staff must've been feeling, :(

~shadow

[sheevaa]

I'm going to have to side with Athena on this one. Kid wasn't born yet, doesn't really equate to murder in my eyes, either. Would more fall into very late stage abortion, perhaps.

[HijabiGirl]

So, what you are saying is that the hospital staff had to watch helplessly as this little baby died over a three day period? Nothing they could do. That must have been the basis for some real emotional trauma in the NICU.

Well that's usually the case in shaken babies and other abuse cases. They get kids with herniated brains, vegetative states, and sometimes extreme prematurity (thus not compatible with life) issues due to the mother abusing drugs/alcohol.

My guess is this kid was born but not really "alive" per se. I am thinking they tried extreme measures and life support but for all intents and purposes, this little one was gone. This is all conjecture on my end but going down the list of what could have gone wrong I am thinking this is the most likely situation.

[Hellsbells]

Hearing continues for mother charged in baby death

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Lawyers for a woman charged with murder in the death of her premature baby are seeking her release on bond

Bei Bei Shuai's (bay bay shway) hearing continues Wednesday in Marion Superior Court.

Prosecutors also charged with Shuai with attempted feticide, saying she intended to kill the fetus as well as herself.

Lawyers are seeking to have the charges dropped, arguing that attempted suicide isn't a crime in Indiana and courts have held pregnant women shouldn't be prosecuted for harming themselves. Groups such as the American Medical Association argue that fear of prosecution might prevent pregnant women from seeking prenatal care.

http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=14435248

[princessgrandma]

Good grief. It's so simple. Have the baby, give it up for adoption, THEN go home and give yourself a rat poison cocktail.

The tragedy in the whole thing is that a baby died who didn't really have to die. Personally, I could give two shits about the mother.

[tmdgirl]

Personally, I do agree with the murder charge.

If the baby was viable, and the mother did something to ensure the baby died, then that is murder.

If it was an accident ie, she fell off a bike or was in a car accident, then it wouldn't be murder since she wouldn't have meant for the baby to be injured or die.

But to ingest rat poison, intentionally, she knew that it would either kill herself or the baby or both. She may as well have had the baby and strangled it or stabbed it. Either way, she did murder that innocent little child.

Too bad she couldn't have waited until the baby was born and just offed herself.

[nobigwhoopdawg]

Unfortunately, pregnancy hormones don't always respond to logic and rationality and shit.

A little more on this one.

Basically, Bei Bei got clobbered with the news that her divorced boyfriend wasn't, and he reneged on everything after they opened a restaurant and had most of a kid together and errything.

Sui Mak, Bei Bei's friend that took her to the hospital, is a friend of my grandma's (sort of; Sui waits tables at my grandparents' favorite place to eat; bring Grams food and you have a BFF), so I got to hear all about it, and she's saving all the newspaper articles for me to read whenever I can get back up there.

Personally, I think Bei Bei just needs help dealing with all this shit. If that means residential psych treatment, so be it. But jail? Really?

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A woman accused of killing her premature baby by eating rat poison before giving birth will not be released on bond, a judge ruled Monday.

Prosecutors insist Bei Bei Shuai, 34, intended to kill her fetus when she ate rat poison in December while she was 33 weeks pregnant. Doctors delivered her daughter prematurely Dec. 31, and the child died three days later, suffering a brain hemorrhage.

Shuai was also charged with attempted feticide. She told police that she wanted to kill herself after her boyfriend left her.
Defense lawyers want the charges against the Chinese immigrant dismissed, saying Shuai was trying to commit suicide, not commit murder, and that suicide isn't a crime in Indiana.
[...]

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/28147723/detail.html

[Darsa]

I can only think that 7 weeks prior to full-term when this happened, makes this sound a whole lot more like murder than anything else. Poor little baby :(

[AngelFire]

I don't know I would think it depends on the law of that State. When Lacy Peterson was murdered years back, I recall that a law was passed here that if you do anything to a woman that is pregnant and the baby dies you are charged with murder. Now I know mom did this to herself, but baby died as a result and baby was viable. So I agree with the charges.

[bluewr]

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/28147723/detail.html

One thing I noticed in that article

Attorney Linda Pence told the judge in April that keeping Shuai in jail is tragic and inappropriate and that allowing the case to proceed would mean that pregnant women could face criminal charges over any behavior that might endanger their fetus, including smoking.

So, Smoking or using items that are harmful/deadly to a fetus not illegal?
Buh?

[Darsa]

How dare they think to penalize someone innocently smoking a cigarette or chugging a cocktail or three while knocked up! That's.... INHUMANE!!

[Kaylara]

One thing I noticed in that article


So, Smoking or using items that are harmful/deadly to a fetus not illegal?
Buh?

Um... No. The list of things that pregnant women should avoid is truly and entirely crazy. (I'm not talking about thinks like crack either.) Sushi, tea, coffee, lunch meat, cleaning litterboxes, etc, the list is immense. If you criminalize non-criminal behavior because someone is pregnant, than you are putting the rights of a prospective person in front of the rights of a person that is already here. Pregnant women are more than just incubators, they're actually people in their own right.

[Kitty]

Um... No. The list of things that pregnant women should avoid is truly and entirely crazy. (I'm not talking about thinks like crack either.) Sushi, tea, coffee, lunch meat, cleaning litterboxes, etc, the list is immense. If you criminalize non-criminal behavior because someone is pregnantthan you are putting the rights of a prospective person in front of the rights of a person that is already here. Pregnant women are more than just incubators, they're actually people in their own right.

There are fetal protection laws declaring when fetuses are considered "people" and when they can be considered victims. A pregnant woman knowingly ate poison--regardless of whom she was trying to harm (herself or the fetus or Santa Claus) she should be held accountable. If someone harms/kills an obviously pregnant woman--society generally raises hell on behalf of the woman AND her fetus (Scott & Laci Peterson?)

She stated she wanted to kill herself and the unborn baby. If she had waited until her daughter was born and then fed her rat poison it would still be manslaughter at the very least. And in many states/regions suicide used to be considered a crime, attempted suicide still is what's the difference here?

Under Common Law, suicide, or the intentional taking of one's own life, was a felony that was punished by Forfeiture of all the goods and chattels of the offender. Under modern U.S. law, suicide is no longer a crime. Some states, however, classify attempted suicide as a criminal act, but prosecutions are rare, especially when the offender is terminally ill. Instead, some jurisdictionsrequire a person who attempts suicide to undergo temporary hospitalization and psychological observation. A person who causes the death of an innocent bystander or would-be rescuer while in the process of attempting suicide may be guilty of murder or Manslaughter.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Suicide

[princessgrandma]

Granted, the mother had problems and was probably overwhelmed, but the bottom line here is that the baby was viable at the time the mother injested the rat poison. She was well-aware that, by killing herself, she was killing the child. Common sense there. You die, your body dies, the baby dies. In this case, the child was affected by the rat poison for a week before being born. The way I see it, it's intentional murder and oops, the suicide didn't work.

A baby is dead that never had a chance to live. This pisses me off to the point that I could give two shits for the mother. I think they should have at least tried to save the baby by emergency c-section, even if the mother might bleed out. She wanted to die anyway. The baby had no choice in the matter.

Kind of on a tangent here, but NC is in the process of passing Zahra's Law, to make it a criminal act to desecrate or dismember a corpse with the intention of concealing a crime, such as murder. What pisses me off is that, while this is a good thing, Zahra's Law, I don't see why they have such difficulty in getting a law instated that makes it a case of double murder if a pregnant woman is killed and the baby dies. It only makes sense that, in the interest of complete justice, that that small life should not be disregarded simply b/c he or she had the misfortune of still being in utero at the time of his or her death. A death is a death, and if it's murder, it should be charged.

This mother killed her baby and should be dealt with as a murderer. As always, this is my opinion only, and I am not trying to force my views on anyone.

[bluewr]

Um... No. The list of things that pregnant women should avoid is truly and entirely crazy. (I'm not talking about thinks like crack either.) Sushi, tea, coffee, lunch meat, cleaning litterboxes, etc, the list is immense. If you criminalize non-criminal behavior because someone is pregnant, than you are putting the rights of a prospective person in front of the rights of a person that is already here. Pregnant women are more than just incubators, they're actually people in their own right.

I think a little bit of common sense would be more in line, then just penalizing every little thing.

[Kaylara]

And I agree. I wasn't condoning what this woman did. Personally, this baby was viable enough that I think the mother should be charged with something, although I'm not entirely sure that I agree with the murder charge. But I think that there are already laws against injuring your children by poisoning them.

Bluewr, common sense rarely is as common as we'd like. :) I just don't see why someone would want to criminalize non-criminal behavior just because a woman is pregnant.