Police in the United States say a toddler has died under the care of a nurse who had turned up to work while on a four-day meth bender.
Michigan nurse Judith Sobol has been accused of second-degree murder after showing up for her shift while still high on the substance, according to WNDU.
Coloma police arrived at the toddler’s house around 2.30 am after receiving calls that she was unresponsive and had turned ‘blue’.
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Upon arriving, police found parents trying to save the child, who suffered from several medical conditions and was left without her breathing tube.
Sobol has been accused of misplacing the vital tube.
Police said they found the 42-year-nurse lying next to the girl, ‘incoherent and mumbling’, as per PEOPLE.
According to the police reports, Sobol was ‘not in the right state of mind to be at work and should have never come to work at all’.
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Too Fab reports that after the child was taken to hospital, doctors found the breathing tube tangled in her hair after the nurse claimed that it could have disconnected while she was cleaning it and she ‘probably passed out or fell asleep’.
Coloma Township police chief Wes Smigielski said: “Through an investigation, the officers found out that was the registered nurse that was supposed to care for the child throughout the night.
"After the investigation was completed, we determined that she was high on methamphetamines and should not have been in care of that child,”
Police confirmed they had retrieved a small container in Sobol’s purse that contained meth and two pipes inside.
Sobol also reportedly admitted that she had taken meth four days in a row and had also got high the same day she got called to work to monitor the child.
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The police chief explained how the dangerous substance was rising in popularity in the Michigan small town.
“Methamphetamine is getting worse around here," he said.
"We do a lot of cases of it.
"This is the first in my career--of this nature--of someone using meth and doing this kind of act.
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"Usually, it’s an at-home thing, or they’re in their own car, but they’re not taking care of a 3-year-old."
Sobol is currently being held on a $500,000 (AUD $724,113 or £407,655) bond at the Berrien County Jail, with her next hearing set for June 29.
Charisa Bossinakis