A woman tried to smother her son four times within 15 minutes in a Charlotte hospital, WBTV is reporting. According to a police report, 32-year-old Maggie Dixon first used her hands before resorting to a pillow in an attempt to suffocate her one-year-old son.
The North Carolina woman had brought the boy to the hospital with a complaint that he was suffering respiratory problems. Dixon told the nurses on duty that she suspected her son had pneumonia. However, the hospital workers at the Levine Children’s Hospital suspected something was amiss when they noticed that the boy was always struggling to breathe whenever he was alone with his mother.
The nurses reviewed the CCTV footage from the boy’s room and shockingly saw the 32-year-old woman trying to choke her young son. The nurses hurriedly removed Maggie Dixon from the room and called the police. In a statement to the police department, the nurses revealed that the “abnormalities” in the boy’s vital signs which included spikes in his oxygen and breathing levels made them suspicious.
According to the Laurinburg Exchange , Maggie Dixon has been charged with felony child abuse of causing serious injury and attempted first-degree murder. The 32-year-old shook her head as the presiding judge read out the charges against her. It was the only emotional response she showed during her time in court.
MORE: Maggie Dixon was removed from the child’s hospital room and is being charged with attempted murder and felony child abuse. https://t.co/oMwLbFdJfq
— WBTV News (@WBTV_News) June 19, 2017
Investigators say there are no noticeable signs that child was being abused at home. The boy remains in the hospital and would be allowed to stay with his father when he is discharged. The father does not live with Dixon.
WSCOTV learnt that Maggie Dixon worked as a respiratory therapist from 2008 to 2011, until her license expired. Bill Croft, executive director of the North Carolina Respiratory Board, where Dixon studied said he was shocked by the incident and found it hard to believe that Dixon would try to kill her child.
“It’s always a concern to me when a former student or a former colleague or anybody has a charge against them. It is a charge, not a conviction, so I’m holding out hope that, one they find out it is not the issue that they charged her with, and if it is, then hopefully she gets help…I can’t fathom suffocating your own child. It’s stunning to even suggest that somebody I know would do that.”
[Featured Image by Monkey Business Images/iStock]
