A Phoenix woman who stepped outside of her apartment to have a smoke Tuesday evening found her neighbor's infant children sitting outside and eating pills -- both prescription and over-the-counter -- from six different bottles, police say.
According to court documents obtained by New Times, the woman ran into the apartment next door and found the kids' mother, 36-year-old Jessica Harvey, passed out on the floor between the bathroom and the hallway.
The witness took the kids and called police, telling officers that the kids were taking the pills from a box containing the pill bottles, none of which had a lid.
No one saw which pills the infants ingested, but court documents say they included aspirin, Benadryl, amoxicillin, naproxen, and Elmiron.
Both kids were hospitalized, and one had his stomach pumped due to a life-threatening dose of aspirin.
"[The boy's] life expectancy is unknown at this time," a probable-cause statement says.
Meanwhile, Harvey was still passed out when the cops showed up to the apartment, located near 19th and Peoria avenues. They dragged her to the living room, as she was "unresponsive but breathing."
She was treated by firefighters and finally woke up, "mumbling words and not making sense," according to the documents.
A "large amount" of garbage, old food, and bugs was found in the apartment, records state, making the place unsafe even before mom passed out and let the kids have a free-for-all with the pills.
Harvey eventually managed to verbalize whole sentences after being put in a holding cell at a police substation, telling police that she had been "drinking all day and was unsure of what other items she had ingested during the day," the documents state.
The children were still being evaluated at a Phoenix hospital by the time the initial report was submitted to the court. Harvey faces two counts each of child abuse and endangerment.
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