ARTESIA, N.M. (Court TV) — A New Mexico teenager, charged with her infant son’s death, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital where the child was found in a trash can.
Alexee Trevizo is charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of her newborn son, named in the lawsuit as Alex Ray Fierro.
Alexee Trevizo, seen here in a booking photo, is charged with murder in the death of her infant son. (Eddy County Detention Center)
Trevizo went to the emergency room at Artesia General Hospital just before midnight on Jan. 26, 2023, complaining of lower back and abdominal pain.
The lawsuit, filed on July 31 in San Miguel County, establishes a timeline of events beginning with Trevizo’s arrival at the hospital on Jan. 26 and continuing into the early hours of Jan. 27.
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1/27/23 12:18 am: Trevizo is given cyclobenzaprine and acetaminophen.
12:28 am: Trevizo given sodium chloride, Ketorolac, Ondansetron and morphine sulfate. Lab orders were input into the hospital system, including one for a pregnancy serum test.
12:51 am: Positive pregnancy test results sent to doctor and nurses via computer.
According to the lawsuit, “The doctor and nurses admit that at 12:51 am they received on their computers the notice of the results of the blood test showing that Alexee was pregnant.”
1:39 am: A nurse comes to Alexee’s room to remove her IV after she reported needing to use the bathroom. Surveillance video inside the hospital shows Alexee running down the hallway and into a public bathroom.
1:40, 1:49 am: Alexee’s mother attempts to check on her in the bathroom.
1:56 am: Alexee unlocks the bathroom door, moments before the nurse went to open the bathroom using a key.
1:57 am: Alexee returns to her room, unassisted.
2:38 am: Infant is pronounced dead.
A toxicology report obtained by Court TV indicates that the infant had morphine and other drugs in its system. The medical examiner’s report, dated Jan. 27, lists the infant’s cause of death as entrapment and the manner of death as homicide. The toxicology report, performed later on the infant’s body, revealed several drugs in his system, including morphine.
Trevizo’s attorney, Gary Mitchell, told Vinnie Politan that the morphine was likely a contributing factor to the infant’s death and that the drug was administered by the hospital after her arrival at the emergency room. Mitchell has emphasized the failure of the hospital and its medical professionals to respond to the positive pregnancy test within a reasonable period of time.
“A fact that’s critical in this case: (the hospital) began administering morphine, a pain killer, and other pain killers to her for her back pain and abdominal pain within 28 minutes after she was in the hospital,” Mitchell said. “And then they didn’t stop administering that even though they knew that she was pregnant. They were administering that in an IV.”
The medical examiner’s report said that the baby “died shortly after birth” and that air found in its lungs and stomach “is consistent with the baby having been born alive.”
“More likely than not, the child may have taken a breath or two,” Mitchell said. “The morphine was a critical problem for this child.”
Mitchell maintains that the child was not born alive and “certainly did not breathe properly.”
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The lawsuit, which lists attorney Arthur Bustos as the plaintiff on behalf of the infant’s estate, also faults the hospital and its administrators for violating HIPAA laws.
Alexee Trevizo is seen on January 27, 2023, on police bodyworn camera after her infant son was found in a trash can. (Still from bodyworn camera from Artesia Police Department)
The suit claims that the hospital was wrong to allow officers to use lapel cameras to record interviews in the hospital, where they “asked questions of Alexee and her mother that are protected by HIPAA laws and by the New Mexico Constitution, law, rules, statutes and regulations.” In the suit, attorneys say that the videos, as well as medical records and lab results should never have been released to the public.
Trevizo was released from jail on bond with restrictions. Mitchell said that her current circumstances are “about as horrific as you can get, meaning that the harassment never stops. The constant calls to her home … there’s no social media because that is vicious. And she lives a very fraught life right now.”
