Cristina Hodgson
THE parents of an 11-month-old baby hospitalised after testing positive for cocaine have been arrested in Estepona.
The child, now in custody of the Junta, has spent over a month in intensive care after falling critically ill due to cocaine ingestion.
According to official reports, the child was admitted to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella at the beginning of December 2020 with ‘stomach pains,’ but tests revealed that he was positive for cocaine.
The infant’s condition worsened over the following days and he was transferred to Malaga Children’s Hospital Intensive Care Unit where he has remained for over a month.
Meanwhile, an investigation was launched which found both parents, aged 26, to have a history of drug abuse and the father, of Colombian nationality, a criminal record for a prior crime against public health.
The child was not breastfeeding when he was admitted to hospital and it’s still unclear how he ingested the drug.
The parents, at the time of their arrest, were living in Estepona with their five-year-old daughter and the mother’s sister and her husband.
The police enquiry also found that the when the mother, of Spanish nationality, was in the final stages of her pregnancy, she was admitted to the hospital with a ‘health problem,’ a corresponding blood test revealed she tested positive for cocaine and the child was born with withdrawal syndrome.
Both parents have been arrested and charged with abuse and neglect of a minor and have been forbidden to visit the child.
The baby’s sister has been taken into provisional care by her aunt and uncle.
Hospital sources have informed that the baby has been discharged from the ICU and, though still hospitalised, his progress is favourable.
