In a case that police say lays bare the disturbing extent of the opioid crisis, a woman in Pennsylvania faces charges of assaulting her baby by overdosing on heroin while seven months pregnant. The baby was delivered by emergency C-section Saturday after 30-year-old Kasey Dischman was found unresponsive in the bathroom of her East Butler home, CBS Pittsburgh reports. She had gotten out of jail for retail theft just five days earlier, authorities say. Police, who found a needle hidden in the bathroom after obtaining a warrant and searching the apartment, say Dischman will face charges including aggravated assault of an unborn child after she is released from the hospital.
The baby girl has been declared brain dead and police say the charges could include homicide if she is taken off life support. "The baby's in bad shape," police Lt. Eric Hermick tells the Butler Eagle. The opioid epidemic, he says, is "so severe it doesn't stop a mother 30-plus weeks pregnant from overdosing." WPXI reports that Dischman's boyfriend, Andrew Lucas, will be charged with interfering with the investigation because he claimed she had a seizure disorder and didn't do drugs. Hermick says things could have turned out differently if doctors had known the truth and administered the anti-overdose drug Narcan right away. Police say the couple's 6-year-old daughter was also home when Dischman overdosed. (More heroin stories.)
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