Waneta Hoyt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Waneta Hoyt was a mother with a tragic history: her five biological children died, supposedly of Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, or "crib death"). In fact, she and her family were the subject of a classic paper in the Journal of Pediatrics in 1972, used as evidence that SIDS runs in families.
In 1995 Waneta Hoyt confessed to and was convicted of murdering her children. Pediatricians were misled for years, and probably made numerous tragic mistakes, because of this one case. Some new studies estimate that 5-30% of SIDS cases are actually homicides.
According to Dr. Jerold Lucey, who was editor of the Journal of Pediatrics in 1972, "Huge amounts of time and money have been wasted over the last 25 years" because of Hoyt and the scientists who she misled.
[edit] References
- Begley S. The nursery's littlest victims. Newsweek. September 22, 1997. Pp. 72-73
- Steinschneider A. Prolonged apnea and the sudden infant death syndrome: clinical and laboratory observations. Pediatrics. 1972;50(4):221-227
- Book: The Death of Innocents by Richard Firstman and Jamie Talan
