Mom Left to Smoke Pot 4-year-old girl was outside without a coat in 3-degree weather

[lostinblue 1,989]

A 4-year-old girl was found outside in 3-degree weather, unconscious and turning blue, after her mother left her and two other young children alone early Friday morning to smoke marijuana, police in Connecticut said.

Police started investigating when Rebecca Santiago-Reyes, 23, of New London, called 911 at 3:38 a.m. to report her 4-year-old daughter was missing, police said

At 3 a.m., she again checked on the children and noticed her 4-year-old daughter was missing, so she searched the apartment, knowing the little girl likes to hide. When she couldn't find her daughter, Santiago-Reyes said she banged on the next-door neighbor's door.

Responding officers noted that the home was messy, with dirty laundry on the floor throughout, and it was mixed with toys and food. They also said there was a lingering smell of marijuana and rotting garbage

Police found the little girl hunched between a storm door and the door of one of the apartments at 163 Huntington Street. She was unconscious, turning blue, and was wearing only a yellow T-shirt, jeans boots, police said.

The officer who found her rushed the girl to an ambulance, which brought her to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital.

The little girl's body temperature had dropped to 90 degrees, her fingers were red and swollen and she had what hospital staff called "frost nips" on her arms, back and legs, police said.

The written statement Santiago-Reyes provided police another account of what happened before the child disappeared and the police report notes she had lied about going to a store.

Santiago-Reyes told officers she left the apartment around 2:30 a.m. to "smoke some weed," then drove to Willetts Avenue to pick up someone else to smoke more marijuana, the police report says.

She returned home an hour later, went to check on her children

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Mom-Leaves-to-Smoke-Pot-Girl-Found-Freezing-Outside-Cops-292933511.html

The life of a stoner. ... ..

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

So what?

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

This kind of thing happens to parents who aren't smoking pot, too. Heck, Toronto had a three year old boy die early Thursday morning. He got out of the apartment at 4:20 am while everyone was asleep. They woke at 7:30am to find him missing. By the time he was found at 10am, 300 metres from home in someone's backyard, it was too late.

If this woman had been home, alone with the kids, she probably would have been asleep. The same thing could have happened. Exactly the same thing.

Yes, it sucks that marijuana was involved, yes, marijuana is illegal in most places. But that doesn't mean that the mother's pot-smoking is to blame in a case like this.

Heck, even responsible, loving, non-neglectful parents have been known to leave a tiny child home alone. I used to nanny. I got a call from the parents I worked for that they had woken up to their older son having a seizure and in respiratory distress, panicked, rushed to the car with him--it should be noted the nearest ambulance station was over a half hour away so by the time they got to the hospital, it would have been an hour, making it faster to do CPR in the car--and forgotten the baby in his crib. They woke me up in the middle of the night with a phonecall and I went to pick up the baby and he stayed with me for several days while the older boy recovered.

When I was a tiny child, it wasn't unusual for parents at music festivals to herd all the little kids into one trailer or tent in the campground in the evening and get us all to sleep, then go back out to a nearby stage for music, leaving us only with walkie-talkies in case of emergency.

[VOL 425]

Sounds like a major looser to me.

Age 23 with three kids the oldest being age 5.

I am sure she is on every welfare program known to man. WIC, FoodStamps, Sec 8 or housing subsidiary, CHIPS, etc.

She need to stop puffing and learn how to keep her legs closed also....

[lostinblue 1,989]

This kind of thing happens to parents who aren't smoking pot, too. Heck, Toronto had a three year old boy die early Thursday morning. He got out of the apartment at 4:20 am while everyone was asleep. They woke at 7:30am to find him missing. By the time he was found at 10am, 300 metres from home in someone's backyard, it was too late.

If this woman had been home, alone with the kids, she probably would have been asleep. The same thing could have happened. Exactly the same thing.

Yes, it sucks that marijuana was involved, yes, marijuana is illegal in most places. But that doesn't mean that the mother's pot-smoking is to blame in a case like this.

Heck, even responsible, loving, non-neglectful parents have been known to leave a tiny child home alone. I used to nanny. I got a call from the parents I worked for that they had woken up to their older son having a seizure and in respiratory distress, panicked, rushed to the car with him--it should be noted the nearest ambulance station was over a half hour away so by the time they got to the hospital, it would have been an hour, making it faster to do CPR in the car--and forgotten the baby in his crib. They woke me up in the middle of the night with a phonecall and I went to pick up the baby and he stayed with me for several days while the older boy recovered.

When I was a tiny child, it wasn't unusual for parents at music festivals to herd all the little kids into one trailer or tent in the campground in the evening and get us all to sleep, then go back out to a nearby stage for music, leaving us only with walkie-talkies in case of emergency.

Forget their baby is in the crib ...and you say they are responsible parents....

[Jacque67 7,328]

Looser?

[Not a Tailor 1,370]

Forget their baby is in the crib ...and you say they are responsible parents....

Have you ever had a child seizing and not breathing? Because if not, I don't think you have the right to judge. Seeing a child have a seizure and stop breathing is one of the most terrifying things imaginable and it's completely unsurprising to me that the baby was forgotten--he slept through the whole thing and was still asleep when I arrived to pick him up.

[decocker 7,198]

So what?

good thing she called the cops, huh.

[Darnell 8,478]

So what?

Obviously a single-parent household - if there were 2 parents, well, she might have not had these 'problems', aye?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Sounds like a major looser to me.

Age 23 with three kids the oldest being age 5.

I am sure she is on every welfare program known to man. WIC, FoodStamps, Sec 8 or housing subsidiary, CHIPS, etc.

She need to stop puffing and learn how to keep her legs closed also....

The biggest losers are those that even don't know that it's losers rather than loosers [sic]. Just sayin'.