text: PORTLAND, Ore. – A mother who accidentally smothered her newborn is suing a Portland hospital for $8.6 million, claiming they left the infant with her unattended after giving her pain killers and sleep aids. 
   
   The lawsuit, filed Friday, claims that Portland Adventist Medical Center is at fault for the death of Monica Thompson’s ten-day-old son Jacob. 
   
   Thompson gave birth to Jacob on August 2, 2012 via C-section. He was a healthy baby boy with no conditions or ailments, the report says. 
   
   Three days later, Jacob was taken to a nursery so Thompson could recover and be discharged from the hospital. 
   
   The suit claims the hospital gave Thompson “a combination of narcotic pain killers and sleep aids” at about midnight, and a nurse brought Jacob to her about 3 a.m. so she could breastfeed. 
   
   “About an hour later, still drowsy and groggy, Mrs. Thompson noticed her son was unresponsive in her arms,” the lawsuit states. 
   
   Staff performed emergency procedures, and the boy was placed on life support. He was pronounced deceased at ten days old. 
   
   The lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of the hospital for medicating the breastfeeding mother, putting the infant in her bed without supervision, and not having clear policies or enforcement on the dangers that the combination could create. 
   
   The lawsuit is also seeking relief for the emotional distress for "unintentionally killing her firstborn child." 
   
   In total, the lawsuit is seeking $8,600,000 in relief. The suit was filed by the Conde Law Group of Lake Oswego. ||||| A new mother who accidentally smothered her 4-day-old baby in a hospital bed has filed an $8.6 million lawsuit against Portland Adventist Medical Center. 
   
   Monica Thompson faults the Southeast Portland hospital for putting her newborn, Jacob, in bed with her in middle of the night so she could breastfeed him while she was unsupervised and heavily medicated with painkillers and sleep aids. 
   
   Thompson dozed off, then awoke to find that Jacob wasn't breathing on Aug. 6, 2012, according to the lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court. 
   
   Jacob suffered catastrophic brain damage, and his parents removed him from life support six days later after doctors told them that his comatose state was irreversible. 
   
   Kristi Spurgeon Johnson, a spokeswoman for Portland Adventist Medical Center, said Wednesday she couldn't comment on the lawsuit until the hospital has had a chance to review it. She also declined comment about the hospital's policies about newborns sharing beds with mothers. 
   
   The suit highlights a grave area of concern in pediatrics: parents sleeping in the same beds with their children, including mothers sharing hospital beds with their newborns. 
   
   The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in 2011 against bed-sharing. A 2014 study in the Journal of Perinatology catalogued the deaths of 15 healthy infants while sharing beds with their mothers in U.S. maternity wards. 
   
   Jacob was the first child of Monica and Graham Thompson. He was born by Caesarean section on Aug. 2, 2012, according to the suit. 
   
   Monica Thompson was medicated with Ambien and Vicodin a few hours before a nurse walked into Thompson’s room, gave her the baby and left around 3 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2012, according to the suit. The suit states that about an hour later, Monica Thompson was “still drowsy and groggy” when she realized her son wasn’t moving. 
   
   “She called for a nurse while she tried to get him to respond,” the suit states. “... She poked him and talked to him with no reaction. When no nurse came to help, Mrs. Thompson carried her son to the hallway and frantically yelled for help.” 
   
   The suit states that Jacob was stabilized and transferred to Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, where he died when he was 10 days old on Aug. 12, 2012, after he was taken off life support. 
   
   The suit seeks damages for the baby’s “desperation and anxiety” as he was suffocated and his mother’s “severe emotional distress upon unintentionally killing her firstborn child.” The suit also seeks compensation for Monica Thompson’s counseling expenses for depression and post traumatic stress disorder. 
   
   The suit was filed by Lake Oswego attorney Diego Conde. Read the lawsuit here. 
   
   -- Aimee Green 
   
   agreen@oregonian.com 
   
   o_aimee ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
target: – Monica Thompson tried for 12 years to get pregnant, so when she had her first child, Jacob, she called him her "miracle baby." Tragically, he didn't live past day 10. Now the mother of a toddler girl, Thompson is suing Portland Adventist Medical Center in Oregon for $8.6 million, faulting the hospital for negligence and a lack of clear policies, reports KATU. That's because Thompson, who gave birth to a healthy boy on Aug. 2, 2012, was on Ambien and Vicodin when hospital staff brought 4-day-old Jacob to nurse in the hospital bed with her, unsupervised, at 3am. When she woke up groggy an hour later, he was unresponsive. "She called for a nurse while she tried to get him to respond," her lawsuit, filed last Friday, states. "When no nurse came to help, [she] carried her son to the hallway and frantically yelled for help." He was quickly stabilized, but doctors determined he had suffered severe hypoxia and permanent brain damage. He was taken off life support on Aug. 12, reports the Oregonian. While Thompson is suing the hospital for negligence and relief for the emotional distress of "unintentionally killing her firstborn child," her attorney tells People that her "biggest hope" is for hospitals to "set clear policies for their nurses to avoid something as senseless as dropping off a child for breastfeeding to a mom loaded with narcotics and painkillers." The hospital says it is reviewing the claims and that "our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family." (This mom sued a hospital over a breastfeeding mix-up.)