Tiffany Alberts, 41, is facing the new charge due to additional information that has been provided through the course of the investigation, according to our CBS affiliate station in Indianapolis which spoke with prosecutors on the case.
Previously, Alberts was charged with six counts of aggravated battery and neglect of a dependent.
Alberts is living in Springfield until her next court date scheduled in January 2017.
FIRST REPORT 11/24/2016
A 41-year-old teacher accused of injecting her son’s IV line with feces is allowed to live in Springfield while she awaits trial in Indiana.
Tiffany Alberts posted an $80,000 surety bond Wednesday and was released from jail. Prosecutors in Marion County, Indiana, accuse Alberts of injecting her 15-year-old son’s intravenous lines multiple times with feces while he was undergoing cancer treatment. Her son developed life-threatening blood infections, which also delayed his cancer treatment, CBS affiliate WLFI reported.
Alberts, of Wolcott, Indiana, faces six counts of aggravated battery and one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, all felony charges.
A child abuse investigation was launched No. 17 at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis when medical said
Tiffany Alberts, 41, a western Indiana teacher, faces six counts of aggravated battery and one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, all felonies.
A child abuse investigation was launched Nov. 17 at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis when medical staff said a boy being treated for leukemia there developed several unexplained infections. According to court documents, video surveillance showed Alberts inject an unknown substance into the boy’s IV line with a syringe multiple times, WLFI reported.
Medical staff there told investigators the boy received his first round of chemotherapy in September and then went home. He returned a few days later with a high fever, vomiting and significant bouts of diarrhea, the station reported. Doctors found the teen’s blood had organisms normally found in stool.
According to court documents, Alberts told investigators she injected water into her son’s IV to “flush the line” because the “medicine that was given to him burned,” the documents said. She later admitted she injected the boy’s IV with fecal matter several times since Nov. 13 to get her son moved to another unit at Riley, where she said treatment was better, the station reported.
A judge on Wednesday allowed Alberts to reside on Elmore Drive in Springfield as she awaits trial. Her next court date is a pretrial hearing set for Jan. 17, 2017, online court records show. The judge also issued a no contact order with her son as a condition of her release.
The Tri-County School District where Alberts worked said she’s been on leave since her husband died in May, the station reported.
Her son’s health has since improved, but doctors said they worry they may have lost the best window to successfully treat his leukemia. They said he would have died had he undergone cancer treatment while he still had the blood infection, WLFI reported.