Appeals Court Reduces Sentence for Doctor Convicted of Poisoning Baby
A court in Nederland (Netherlands) has sentenced Utrecht doctor سارة ف. to eight years in prison for attempting to murder her newborn daughter by tampering with breast milk given to the hospital.
The Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden (Arnhem Court of Appeal) reduced her sentence from the earlier eleven-year term issued by a lower court. Judges ruled that she had “somewhat diminished responsibility,” which led to the shorter prison sentence.
The baby girl was born prematurely in April 2020 and was placed in an incubator at the Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis (Wilhelmina Children's Hospital) in Utrecht. Prosecutors said سارة ف. repeatedly diluted the breast milk she brought to the hospital and mixed it with the anti-diarrheal drug loperamide.
As a result, the child developed serious health complications, including dangerous heart rhythm disturbances. Doctors at the hospital initially struggled to determine the cause of the symptoms until tests on the breast milk revealed the presence of the drug.
After the discovery, the hospital stopped using the mother’s milk and switched the baby to artificial formula feeding. The child’s health then improved and she recovered from the medical complications.
At the time of the incident, سارة ف. was working as a junior doctor and was training to become an anesthesiologist. She has since been declared unfit to practice medicine.
Throughout the case, she denied the accusations. Experts suggested she might suffer from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, a psychological disorder in which a person deliberately causes illness in another individual, often a child, to attract attention or sympathy.
During the appeal hearings, lawyers argued that the medication could have entered the breast milk naturally. However, medical experts concluded this was impossible. The appeals court therefore ruled that the doctor intentionally and with premeditation attempted to end her child’s life.
سارة ف. was not present in court when the verdict was announced. She had previously been allowed to remain free under strict conditions while awaiting the appeal. Her lawyer said it has not yet been decided whether she will challenge the ruling at the Hoge Raad (Supreme Court).