An 8-year-old little girl died a few months ago after being given a dangerous drug by a family friend to make her feel better. Anya Hawthorne, who was just shy of her 5th birthday at the time, was feeling ill and had trouble sleeping.
To help her out, Kimberly Brooks gave the girl a sip of methadone thinking it would make the child sleep. Instead, the drug wreaked havoc on the girl’s tiny body.
The sassy little girl who her mom described as a ‘junior mom’ went into cardiac arrest and suffered catastrophic damage to her body. Over the next three years, when Anya should have been going to kindergarten, learning to ride a bike and making friends, she was bound to a hospital bed in hospice care.
Then, last month the little girl lost her fight for life.
Anya’s mom, Mary Anne Hawthorne, is still in disbelief in what happened to her once-vibrant and talkative child and has words of wisdom for parents who are lucky enough to have healthy children at home. “Just let them know that you love them. You can never, never let your kids know you love them enough,” she said.
Brooks, who admitted giving Anya the drug but is not believed to have intended to harm the child, is now serving a five-year prison sentence for felonious assault and child endangerment. With the death of Anya, she may face manslaughter charges pending an autopsy to determine the cause of Anya’s death.
The prosecutor in the case said the story of Anya is a cautionary tale for caregivers who give children prescriptions intended for adults, even with good intentions. ”Feeding methadone to a child can and did cause serious physical harm,”Ron O’Brien said. “Adults should never give medications or drugs of any kind to children without the approval of their doctor.”
Anya’s obituary (
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2014/03... )records how tragic the little girls loss was to so many. Writing Anya had been “summoned by Angels,” the child will be missed by five brothers and sisters, grandparents, great-parents and her grieving mom.
http://latest.com/2014/04/a-tragic-mistake...
Posted By: Jeni Fa
Tuesday, September 16th 2014 at 12:31AM
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