I previously wrote about the death of little five-month-old Benjamin Sargent on this blog at http://elfninosmom.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/parents-of-the-year-again/
It turns out that poor little Benjamin didn’t starve to death. Instead, he died as a result of his incredibly filthy diaper. No, I’m not kidding; I wish I were.
According to news reports, little Benjamin’s diaper had been unchanged for so long that the waste material ate through his skin and made it into his blood.
Damn, that pisses me off even more. There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for that. You know these freaks had to smell a dirty diaper. Everyone who has ever been around a baby knows that smell, and it is overwhelming and unmistakable.
The good news is that the sperm donor, James Sargent, was convicted and is now looking down the barrel at that 100-year prison sentence. The egg donor, Tracy D. Hermann, should face trial in the near future. Let’s hope she is convicted as well. I suspect she will be.
Source: http://www.pjstar.com/news/x126918528/Sargent-No-one-would-help-him-with-the-baby
OMG…I admit I have been guilty of letting my kid sit in a dirty diaper overnight because I didn’t want to wake him…he was so hard to get back to sleep I would rather wait until he was awake then risk it…but they had to let that poor child sit there for days…
makes me want to beat someone.
There’s a world of difference between not wanting to wake up the baby to change a diaper, and what these cretins did. They let that poor little baby sit there without food or water, without being changed, and without even being noticed at all for eight days. They had taken him back from a grandparent after a visit – still in a snowsuit, still in a carseat – and just put the carseat in his room and left him there without even taking him out of it.
In the meantime they fed themselves, and sat around playing video games. The mother went into the room after a week before going out herself, claims she thought the baby was sleeping, and says she put a bottle beside him so he could “feed himself” when he woke up. There are two problems with that story. One, a five-month-old is not old enough to feed himself. Two, the baby was already dead, and that bitch didn’t even notice it. How the hell someone could not notice that a little baby is dead and wallowing in its own filth is beyond me, but it does speak to the level of sheer neglect this poor infant suffered at their hands.
I was stunned when I found out he had not starved or died of dehydration, since obviously that could happen in that period of time, but had instead been poisoned by his own waste products. Honestly, I didn’t realize that was possible. It makes sense that it could happen now that I’ve thought about it though, and after I mentioned this story to a nurse friend, she told me she knew of a baby which was taken to the hospital with a staph infection from not having its diaper changed regularly. Lots of potentially deadly germs normally live in waste products, including E.coli. It’s hard to tell what kind of filth got into that poor baby’s bloodstream, but the baby was definitely very, very ill, it should have been extremely obvious that the baby was very, very ill, and these assholes just let that poor child sit there in his own filth and suffer to death.
As far as I’m concerned, they should both get the death penalty, because only a pure sociopath could do that to a helpless infant, since babies do cry to get your attention and make sure their needs are met. If they didn’t want the baby, they should have given the poor little fella to a relative, or turned him over to the state social services agency, or arranged a private adoption. There are so many options for parents with unwanted babies that a message needs to be sent: ignore your options and let your baby die of neglect, and we will treat you just like we would treat any other coldblooded murderer.
You know…I agree with you.
I just keep thinking about how I hate to let my kids cry (Podling is only 11 months now) when I HAVE to let them cry…like for when I need to eat something because I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast the day before…I feel totally guilty for letting her cry knowing that I have to take care of myself too. I couldn’t imagine letting a child cry and just ignoring him for DAYS…DAYS!!! Hell…usually I eat/take a shower/pee a quickly as possible because I have this fear I am emotionally damaging her!!
I also agree there is NO EXCUSE. If you don’t want the kid…give him/her away.
Poor little baby. At least it is over now and he doesn’t have to deal with those idiots anymore.
I was the same way when Elf was a baby, Sandy. I completely ignored my own needs in favor of his. I therefore also cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could ever let a baby sit and cry (much less suffer) for days like that.