Mum sues hospital for $14m after she smothered baby in sleep
A mother is suing the hospital where she gave birth to her first baby after smothering him in her sleep.
Monica Thompson, 42, gave birth to her son Jacob on August 2, 2012, at Portland Adventist Medical Center in Oregon.
She claims nurses who work at the Portland hospital put her three-day-old son in bed with her to be fed, even though she was still "groggy" from taking painkillers Vicodin and Ambien.
She gave birth via C-section, the Daily Mail reports.
Nurses left the pair alone before Mrs Thompson woke up with Jacob unresponsive in her arms just an hour later.
Suffering severe brain damage from lack of oxygen to his body, Jacob died seven days later when his life support was switched off.
Mrs Thompson is now suing the hospital for $US 8 million ($10m).
In court documents Mrs Thompson is accusing staff of being negligent by first giving her the baby when she was under the influence of strong pain medication and then for leaving her alone with her baby.
The law suit says in a panic Mrs Thompson tried numerous ways to wake her son up.
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"She tried to stimulate her son's suckling reflexes without success. She touched his eyes and got no response. She poked him and talked to him with no reaction," the documents say.
"She called for a nurse while she tried to get him to respond."
When no one came to her aid, she carried the limp baby out into the hospital corridor "frantically" crying for help.
A nurse then called a Code Blue.
While Jacob was stablised by doctors, he never regained consciousness.
Doctors concluded he suffered severe hypoxia and that the brain was "severely and permanently damaged".
Mrs Thompson's lawsuit is filed not just on her behalf but also on the behalf of her late son.
She believes the hospital owes his estate $4m in damages as a result.
She claims she is owed a further $10m personally.
Mrs Thompson says the hospital has "directly caused her severe emotional distress, severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe anxiety and prolonged grief disorder".
