Maternity Ward Bath Salts Incident: New Mom Goes Psychotic and Attacks Medical Staff
A new mother reportedly smoked the drug commonly known as bath salts while still in the maternity ward of a Pennsylvania hospital and had to be restrained by police after attacking several hospital workers. She has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault and various drug counts.
Police took 31-year-old Carla Murphy into custody after she stripped naked and began rolling around on the floor of her hospital room. Murphy had given birth just two days earlier, and authorities discovered the drug known as bath salts in her hospital room.
Murphy punched a nurse and kicked a police officer as they tried to restrain her. The anti-psychotic drug Haldol was administered but took several minutes to go into effect. She was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, disorderly conduct and several drug counts before being released from prison.
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Authorities found more drugs at Murphy's home after executing a search warrant, and there found needles, aluminum foil, and bath salts containers. Michael W. Stewart, 17, was also arrested on drug charges; Stewart is Murphy's boyfriend and was living at the residence when officials entered the home.
Bath salts have reportedly been to blame for several attacks lately, and was initially connected to the cannibalistic attack of Ronald Poppo. While it was initially thought that Rudy Eugene, the attacker, had ingested bath salts before attacking Poppo, toxicology reports showed no trace of the substance.
"The problem today is that there is almost an infinite number of chemical substances out there that can trigger unusual behavior," Dr. Bruce Goldberger, Professor and Director of Toxicology at the University of Florida, told The Telegraph.
"There are many of these synthetic drugs that we currently don't have the methodology to test on, and that is not the fault of the toxicology lab. The challenge today for the toxicology lab is to stay on top of these new chemicals and develop methodologies for them, but it's very difficult and very expensive," Goldberger explained.
Murphy and Stewart both face charges and will go before a judge on August 8.
