Mom Injects Hospitalized Son With Her Own Blood: Police

FORT BELVOIR, VA — A Fort Belvoir woman charged with child abuse told police she injected her son with her own blood at Inova Children's Hospital.

Elizabeth Malone, 28, was arrested and charged with child abuse and larceny for the April 25 incident at the hospital. On that day, staff at Inova Children's Hospital reported the woman was stealing medical supplies and possibly harming her 6-year-old son.

A camera installed in the boy's hospital room shows Malone emptying the contents of a syringe and filling it with a substance from her purse, according to a search warrant NBC Washington obtained. Officers arrived to find the woman injecting the fluid into the child's mouth and nose, causing the child to suffer a medical emergency. Doctors said the boy could have died without proper treatment, NBC Washington reported.

Malone told police she took her own blood in a bag to the hospital and inserted it into a syringe.

The arrest comes after the child was admitted to the hospital over half a dozen times this year, drawing suspicions of child abuse from staff.

Two days before the incident, Child Protective Services was notified when doctors expressed concerns that someone was physically harming the child. The child was brought to the hospital April 19, bleeding from his mouth and tracheostomy tube. Hospital staff told NBC Washington the boy had been in the hospital seven times since February and couldn't determine why he was bleeding.

Investigators collected evidence from Malone. No additional charges have been announced yet. She is being held without bail.

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Image via Fairfax County Police