Mom Sues Hospital for $8.6M After Suffocating Her Newborn

Monica Thompson tried for 12 years to get pregnant, so when she had her first child, Jacob, she called him her "miracle baby." Tragically, he didn't live past day 10. Now the mother of a toddler girl, Thompson is suing Portland Adventist Medical Center in Oregon for $8.6 million, faulting the hospital for negligence and a lack of clear policies, reports KATU. That's because Thompson, who gave birth to a healthy boy on Aug. 2, 2012, was on Ambien and Vicodin when hospital staff brought 4-day-old Jacob to nurse in the hospital bed with her, unsupervised, at 3am. When she woke up groggy an hour later, he was unresponsive. "She called for a nurse while she tried to get him to respond," her lawsuit, filed last Friday, states. "When no nurse came to help, [she] carried her son to the hallway and frantically yelled for help."

He was quickly stabilized, but doctors determined he had suffered severe hypoxia and permanent brain damage. He was taken off life support on Aug. 12, reports the Oregonian. While Thompson is suing the hospital for negligence and relief for the emotional distress of "unintentionally killing her firstborn child," her attorney tells People that her "biggest hope" is for hospitals to "set clear policies for their nurses to avoid something as senseless as dropping off a child for breastfeeding to a mom loaded with narcotics and painkillers." The hospital says it is reviewing the claims and that "our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family." (This mom sued a hospital over a breastfeeding mix-up.)