Woman Injects Son With Possibly Deadly Fluid At Hospital: Police

FORT BELVOIR, VA — A Fort Belvoir woman has been arrested and charged after allegedly injecting her child with a potentially deadly fluid at the hospital last week, Fairfax County Police say. The arrest comes after the child was admitted to the hospital over half a dozen times this year, drawing suspicions of child abuse.

On April 25, 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.

Elizabeth Malone, 28, was arrested and charged with child abuse and larceny. She is being held without bond.

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.

No information about what kind of substance Malone used has been released.

Image via Fairfax County Police