Jul 16, 2008 10:48 pm US/Eastern
Tennessee Mother Undergoes Mental Evaluation
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
A four-month-old boy remains in critical condition at Children's Hospital after Pittsburgh Police say his mother poisoned him with salt water.
Amber Brewington, from Tennessee, is undergoing a mental evaluation at the Allegheny County Jail.
Janet Stewart, the baby's grandmother, is struggling with the news.
"She's been so protective of him - how could she do this?," she said.
Brewington allegedly admitted to police that she gave her son injections of salt water in an effort to end his suffering.
Once transferred from Tennessee to Pittsburgh, police say Noah King's condition improved until Brewington arrived.
Dr. Basil Zitelli is not involved in the case but is familiar with Munchausen Syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder in which parents hurt their children to get attention.
"People believe that possibly it may be to draw attention to themselves - but their abusive behavior to the child is planned - they're cognizant of it," Zitelli said.
The disorder made headlines with the case of Mary Beth Davis in West Virginia. She was convicted of giving her son an insulin overdose and of killing her daughter with diet pills.
But police say Brewington told them she suffered from something different - severe postpartum depression.
Lawyers for Andrea Yates argued she had severe postpartum psychosis and was in a delusional state when she drowned her five kids in a bathtub in Texas.
As for Brewington, Judy Stewart says: "She has had mental problems in the past and she's bipolar ... and she's been off of her medicine I know for three years."
But Stewart can't fathom what police are alleging.
"If she's hurt my baby - I don't know what's gonna happen," she said.
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