Houston: A 30-year-old Indian American
pharmacist, suffering from postpartum depression, allegedly
killed her one-year-old son she hated by drowning him in a
bathtub.
According to police reports, Neha Patel, of Florida
allegedly drowned her infant son Ishan on February 16, then
wrapped him in a blanket and went on a 13-hour drive through
Florida, including the Tampa International Airport, where she
intended to jump from the parking structure.
According to the Polk County Sheriff`s Office, from the
day her son was born, Neha said she hated him and the hatred
reached a fatal level on that day, when she first slapped him
and then purposefully left him alone to drown in a bathtub
half full of water.
When she returned 10 minutes later and found him
unconscious, she refused to perform emergency cardiopulmonary
resuscitation, even though she knew the procedure, the
sheriff`s office said.
Patel had reportedly been diagnosed with postpartum
depression but was apparently not taking her medication,
according to police and media reports.
When Patel returned home at 2 AM the next morning, she
told her husband Rasesh Patel, a quality assurance manager at
JP Morgan in Tampa, that Ishan was dead, handed the lifeless
body to the father and again drove off in the car, telling her
husband she planned to kill herself.
Neha was arrested that afternoon at the Tampa
International Airport, sitting in her car on the fourth floor
of the parking structure.
She is being held without bail in a medical dormitory at a
county jail, according to Carrie Eleazer, public information
officer for the Polk County Sheriff`s Office.
PTI
