A grandmother in Colorado is facing child-abuse charges for allegedly attempting to ‘cure’ her four-year-old grandson’s autism using nicotine.
Tammy Eddings-Dion, 53, was arrested on charges of child abuse and crimes against an at-risk juvenile after a nicotine patch was found stuck to the boy’s leg.
When the young boy was picked up by a family member on April 3, he appeared incredibly lethargic and began vomiting.
After being taken to the hospital, the child was nearly unresponsive and couldn’t keep his head up. That’s when the patch was discovered patch on him.
He was treated for nicotine poisoning, but when he was discharged his family found another patch on his back that the hospital had missed.
According to an affidavit, Eddings-Dion had previously sent text messages to the family member in March stating that she ordered a 30-day supply of 24-hour nicotine patches, Fox 21 reported.
She had said the 30-day supply would be enough to ‘see if the treatment was working.’
Eddings-Dion had previously told the family member that she believed nicotine would help cure her grandson’s behavioral issues.
The boy’s mother told her they did not want to use the patches on the boy.
Suspecting that it was Eddings-Dion who stuck the patches on the four-year-old, a family member called the boy’s grandmother and recorded the conversation.
Over the phone, the relative accused Eddings-Dion of making the boy sick and endangering him, during which she was heard apologizing and saying she would never hurt her grandson.
The family member pointed out that she had, in fact, hurt the boy and Eddings-Dion said that ‘it was not intentional.’
The grandmother told the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in an interview on April 7 that she had bought the patches because, according to her own research, the nicotine would cure the boy’s issues.
She said, however, that she had forgotten where she put the patches and had never opened them, further claiming that they would have been out of the boy’s reach.
She said the only ‘sticky’ thing the boy had gotten into that day were Band-Aids in a first aid kit.
Although the boy’s condition is not specified in the affidavit, it states that his brain development is that of a two-year-old.
It further says that he ‘struggles with understanding social cues, cannot form complete sentences, exhibits repetitive behaviors, has sensitivity to loud noises, has difficulty adjusting to new places, and has continued behavioral episodes due to not being able to regulate his emotions,’ Fox 21 reported.
A sheriff who spoke with a forensic nurse at the hospital said that if the boy had not received medical intervention, he could have suffered dehydration and an electrolyte imbalance, causing severe bodily harm.