A woman in Taiwan has been jailed for falling asleep with a running hairdryer that severely burned her newborn baby’s toes, leading to amputation.
The incident took place in Taipei on 16 January 2023, when the woman, identified by her surname Wu, left the appliance on for almost three hours on her baby’s bed.
Wu was drying the damp sheet on the bed when she dozed off.
She called emergency medical services after noticing that her daughter’s foot had developed blisters from being exposed to intense heat from the hairdryer for nearly three hours.
Doctors determined the burns covered more than 15 per cent of the baby’s body and had led to tissue damage in three toes which needed to be amputated.
The woman told the court during trial that she had fallen asleep because of drowsiness from medication for her postpartum depression.
Wu had already moved her daughter away from the hairdryer and did not believe that it could cause such serious burns, she said.
The court said the mother should have considered the possibility of her newborn shifting position in her sleep by rolling over.
The court concluded that her mental and physical capabilities showed she possessed the basic common sense to prevent the accident.
Wu was sentenced to five months in prison for negligence that caused injury to an infant and fined the equivalent of £3,502.
Wu’s sentencing started a debate on Taiwanese social media about postpartum depression, a mood disorder which affects new mothers after childbirth as they suffer from sadness, anxiety and fatigue, potentially impacting their ability to care for themselves and their baby.
While many social media users questioned why the mother could not hear her baby’s cries while she suffered burns, some spoke about postpartum depression and how it should be taken more seriously.
