Mom charged in overdose death aided girl

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Registered: 03-23-2003
Mom charged in overdose death aided girl
2
Thu, 09-23-2004 - 12:21pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Overdose%20Mother%20Charged


Thursday, September 23, 2004 · Last updated 4:40 a.m. PT


Mom charged in overdose death aided girl


By BILL POOVEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


ESTILL SPRINGS, Tenn. -- Investigators say Margaret Mignano killed her severely disabled daughter by giving her a lethal dose of medication. Which prompts Mignano's supporters to ask: Why would she go to such great lengths to save the girl's life just three days before her death?


During a 90-minute power outage on July 1, Mignano hand-pumped an emergency breathing rig to sustain the teenager - who was born with severe cerebral palsy and could not breathe without a ventilator - while waiting for help to arrive.


Three days later, Ashley Mignano was dead.


"If you had a child and you wanted to kill them, and the power is off three days before that, all you've got to do is not do anything," said Mignano's attorney, Floyd Davis.


Mike Mignano moved his family from New Jersey to this rural southern Tennessee town where his wife's parents live in late June, after he retired. His wife was the primary caretaker for their daughter, 15-year-old Ashley.


"There were so many times during her life when she became so disabled that they were told she was going to die, but they were able to keep her alive through whatever they did," said Richard Ames of Scotch Plains, N.J., a longtime neighbor of the Mignanos. "I find that this situation that Margaret is in is probably the worst miscarriage of justice I have ever seen."


An autopsy report shows Ashley died from an overdose of the sedative Phenobarbital, which her mother's attorneys contend she gave her daughter daily - as directed by doctors - to control seizures. The report was enough medical evidence to refer the case to a grand jury, a judge ruled earlier this month. The panel is likely to meet in November.


Investigator Danny Warren said in an arrest warrant that the mother crushed pills of the barbiturate and injected it into Ashley's feeding tube.


Warren said he had no reason to doubt the autopsy report by Dr. Charles Harlan, even though the Nashville-based forensic pathologist is defending his medical license against state charges of professional misconduct for misdiagnosing causes of death and destroying evidence in criminal investigations.


Harlan, who continues to practice, has declined comment on the Mignano case.


Davis has said he will seek another autopsy.


The autopsy report signed by Harlan showed levels of Phenobarbital in Ashley's body well above a lethal dose.


Franklin County Medical Examiner L. Keith Brown testified at Margaret Mignano's preliminary hearing that the amount of the drug found in Ashley's body - about five times what he called her "therapeutic" level - could have "only resulted from increased ingestion."


Mignano said she was following the instruction of Ashley's doctors in the dosages of medications.


Warren said Ashley's death was reported as suspicious after she was rushed to the hospital. She suffered sudden cardiac arrest while on a ventilator at her home.


He said he charged Mignano with murder and arrested her, in part, because she was new to the area and he didn't know if she was a flight risk. Mignano spent a week in jail last month before a judge reduced her bond from $500,000 to $200,000.


Mike Mignano was in New Jersey when his daughter died, and is not a suspect, Warren said.


Dr. Murray Goldstein, director of the United Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation in Washington, D.C., said administering and controlling dosages of medications such as Phenobarbital is an "art form."


"These children are so different, every child," Goldstein said.


Pamela Bellermann of South Orange, N.J., who has a 7-year-old son with cerebral palsy and has publicly questioned the murder case, said her own son's Phenobarbital levels are sometimes at toxic levels.


"Because our children's brains are different, they process these medications differently and so many other variables can affect the levels, from illness, other medications, times meds are given, ... or perhaps that she is adapting to a new environment," Bellermann said.


In Ashley's case, Goldstein said, the "issue is it was prescription drugs and what were the instructions the mother got."


District Attorney Mike Taylor said the case "is not closed as it is."


"We are following up with additional testing and following up with additional toxicologists," Taylor said.

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Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 09-23-2004 - 12:34pm
What a sad, sad, situation...I count my blessings every day for my four healthy kids. My gut tells me to give the Mom the benifit of the doubt, and if possible have a different Dr. conduct another autopsy..tough call, terminaly ill people need to be protected also....


Edited 9/23/2004 12:36 pm ET ET by baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Thu, 09-23-2004 - 12:43pm

I agree.