Sick boy to nurse: My mom tried to kill me
Resident of upper Galilee, 53, arrested on suspicions of attempting on three occasions to choke her 17-year-old son, who suffers from advanced muscular dystrophy and is hospitalized in Rambam Hospital. Police: Evidence shows his blood oxygen levels dropped by half that night
A teenage boy, who has been hospitalized for years with an advanced case of muscular dystrophy, turned to a nurse in Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and told her his mother tried to kill him, according to a police investigation.
The police arrested a 53-year-old resident of the lower Galilee on Tuesday on suspicions that she tried to euthanize her 17-year-old son by choking him to death in his hospital bed.
According to suspicions, the mother attempted three separate times on Monday to disrupt the machines supplying oxygen to her son's body. Haifa Police Chief Ahuva Tomer said that the police have evidence backing up their suspicions. According to her, tests on the boy showed that the level of oxygen in the boy's body dropped by half on the night between Monday and Tuesday.
The boy reported the incidents to the nurse in the ward. Hospital security personnel then called the police. The mother is being detained, but denies the allegations made against her. The police will file a request in Haifa Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to extend her remand.
The boy developed muscular dystrophy when he was 11 years old, and has been hospitalized for long stretches of time ever since. His condition worsened recently and is being ventilated via a tube in his throat.
Rambam Medical Center reported that the boy has a chronic progressive illness and is bound to a wheelchair and is often connected to an artificial respirator.
"Immediately when the boy complained to the nurse of the incident, she called the security personnel and then the police," said hospital spokesman, David Ratner. He added that the medical staff closely followed his condition throughout the night, and emphasized that at this stage the allegations made are only suspicions.
According to the mother's attorney, Muhammad Ali, she claims that while trying to bathe her son she took out the breathing tube connected to his airway.
The mother said during the court hearing that her son has become delusional from the medications he is receiving. "My son is handicapped, sick. I take care of him, and most of the time I am only with him. Even though I raised children, I am nursing him. He has hallucinations from the medications he is receiving. This isn't the first time. He told family members that he dreams about things and that people want to murder him."
The teen's father said, "The treatment became more and more difficult as he got older, but we never considered euthanasia."
"Despite this, she (mother) never said she was incapable of taking care of him anymore," the father added.
He questioned the police's claim regarding the boy's testimony on the mother's alleged attempt to choke him, saying, "I can barely understand what he says. He asked me at the hospital where his mother was; when I told him she is being interrogated he began to cry and said it was his fault."
"I don’t know what will happen if she goes to jail," said the father. "I can't take care of him by myself."
Another painful incident of attempted euthanasia occurred a few years ago in the same area. In June 2008, Shlomo Raab, 59, from Kiryat Motzkin went to the police and confessed that he tried to kill his elderly mother on two separate occasions by giving her high dosages of pills. He explained that he wanted to release her from her pain and suffering. The woman was hospitalized in Rambam Medical Center. Her life was saved, but she died a few months later.
Because euthanasia is not recognized by the law, Raab was convicted on the basis of his confession of attempted murder. The judges in the case were divided as to the sentence to be handed down. Ultimately, he was sentenced to one year in prison.
