Mom guilty in salt poisoning of infant

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Tennessee woman has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to injecting salt water into her infant son’s feeding tube in an effort to poison him while he was at a Pittsburgh hospital.

Twenty-three-year-old Amber Brewington, of Duck River, Tenn., will spend five to 15 years in a mental facility after her plea and sentencing Monday in Allegheny County.

Brewington says she didn’t mean to hurt her son, but police say they believe she harmed the boy in an effort to generate sympathy for herself. A psychiatrist says Brewington has a personality disorder and suicidal thoughts.

The incidents happened in July 2008 at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he was transferred after doctors in Tennessee tried to treat him. A couple is trying to adopt the boy who is blind and suffers from cerebral palsy and other ailments.