7-Month-Old Baby Dies of Benadryl Overdose at Babysitter’s House in Hawaii, Reports Say

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An overdose of antihistamine was named as the cause of death of a 7-month-old child in Hawaii, according to reports.

The girl, Abigail Lobisch, died of a Benadryl overdose while at a babysitter’s house at the Aliamanu Military Reservation in February, KITV reported. The babysitter, 41-year-old Dixie Villa, appeared in court on July 22 and was charged with manslaughter.

Villa told the local news outlet that she was babysitting Abigail, the girl’s brother, and her own two children. She said the children went to the pool, and she noticed they were all sunburned.

She also noticed that Abigail’s skin was splotchy and her body was cold the next morning. She then called 911 and performed CPR until paramedics arrived, the Star-Advertiser reported.

The child’s mother said she texted Villa at 8 a.m. to ask to pick up her children. “Villa responded for Lobisch to ‘come now,’” said police.

The girl was taken to Tripler Army Medical Center and was pronounced dead at 8:55 a.m., the paper reported.

According to the station, her blood tested positive for double the amount of Benadryl than what it takes for an infant to overdose.

“Toxicology testing is performed and positive for diphenhydramine (Benadryl®) at 2400 ng/mL in the blood,” court documents said, as reported by the Star-Advertiser. “The average blood diphenhydramine concentrations reported in fatal overdoses were 1400 ng/mL in infants.”

According to the report, Benadryl shouldn’t be given to children without consulting with a doctor.

Villa turned herself into police over the weekend, and her bail was set at $1 million, Hawaii News Now reported.

Villa was the girl’s babysitter for four to five months, it was reported. The girl was described by her mother as healthy.

Facts About Crime in the US

Violent crime in the United States has fallen sharply over the past 25 years, according to both the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

The rate of violent crimes fell by 49 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBI’s UCR, which only reflects crimes reported to the police.

The violent crime rate dropped by 74 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the BJS’s NCVS, which takes into account both crimes that have been reported to the police and those that have not.

“From 1993 to 2017, the rate of violent victimization declined 74 percent, from 79.8 to 20.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated.

Both studies are based on data up to and including 2017, the most recent year for which complete figures are available.

The FBI recently released preliminary data for 2018. According to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January to June 2018, violent crime rates in the United States dropped by 4.3 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017.