Shocking footage from Cabell Huntington Hospital, West Virginia, showing a baby born addicted to drugs has emerged online.
The infant’s body shakes uncontrollably in a seizure as his body deals with drug withdrawal.
Shockingly, the child’s mother cries and says she was in labour shooting up heroin.
“Nothing matters except for getting high” she cries.
The newborn is suffering from a condition called neonatal abstinence syndrome and every 19 minutes a child in the US is born with the condition. This video has been filmed by Reuters as part of an investigation into the epidemic of drug addicted infants.
The series looks at drug addicted parents and the fate of their children. They investigate the story of Brayden Cummings who was 6 weeks old when his mother, high on methamphetamine, Xanax and methadone, suffocated the child.
Reuters’ investigation identified 110 cases since 2010 that are similar to Brayden’s: babies and toddlers whose mothers used opioids during pregnancy and who later died preventable deaths.
The report states:
“Being born drug-dependent didn’t kill these children. Each recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital. What sealed their fates was being sent home to families ill-equipped to care for them”.
The report further states that a 12-year-old federal law calls on states to take steps to safeguard babies like Brayden. The investigation found that the measure is failing.
Video via Daily Mail.
