Police probe as trick or treat leaves young Bacchus Marsh girl in hospital
It was meant to be a fun night of trick or treating with her family. But Halloween festivities went south swiftly, with a young Bacchus Marsh girl taking a nasty turn after eating a sinister object while collecting lollies.
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A panicked mother fearing for her young daughter’s life after the little girl ingested medication while trick of treating on Halloween.
The shock incident in Bacchus Marsh, northwest of Melbourne, has prompted a police investigation.
Mum Tara Robe and her three-year-old daughter Abby van der Spuy were rushed to hospital, still wearing their Halloween costumes.
Ms Robe said the family was collecting lollies last night in Halletts Way when the incident unfolded.
Abby’s mum knew something wasn’t right when the little girl started making noises
“She was making noises, I ran to see if she was alright,” Ms Robe said.
“I thought she was choking on the lolly. “Then she showed me a packet of tablets and I went, these don’t look like lollies.
“I went, what do they taste like, and she said yuck. I got one out, it didn’t smell like lollies.
“It’s not good. It looks like drugs, I didn’t know what but I knew it was something not good.
“I felt anxiety, sick in the belly.”
Mr Robe said she feared for the little girl’s life during the ordeal.
“I thought she was going to die,” she said. “I didn’t know what that tablet was.
I was stressing, shaking. I started crying.”
Me Robe said there would be no more trick or treating in the future.
“We will call it a day,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll do it again, I’ll be too scared.”
Medical staff attempted to wake Abby up when she came into hospital but she was “very groggy”.
“She couldn’t open her eyes,” Tara said. “I only slept overnight 10 minutes at a time.”
Abby was discharged from hospital this afternoon and is looking forward to playing with her Barbie dolls and watching Emma Wiggle.
Hallets Way resident Justin Constantinou said Ms Robe and four young children came knocking at his door last night for Halloween.
The family’s quest for lollies and chocolate quickly took a turn for the worse when Abby started to look ill.
“All of a sudden the lady was in a real panic, frantic, saying ‘I need help’ and stuff,” Mr Constantinou told the Herald Sun.
“I said ‘is everything OK’ and then she handed me a bag of tablets saying my kids had these.
“I said ‘what are they’. She said she didn’t know.
“She said then ‘she’s had one’ and the toddler said it tasted yuck.
“Her daughter was looking very pale, a bit groggy. She looked spacey, pretty out of it.
“She asked me to call an ambulance.”
Mr Constantinou’s phone had run out of battery so he raced across the road to a neighbour to make the emergency call.
The good Samaritan tended to the sick child, the woman’s other three children and his own children in the sickening wait for the ambulance.
“She was real wobbly, her eyes were out of it,” he said. “It was really scary. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.
“The mum was full on distressed, in a panic.”
The pill was one of five in a plastic snap lock bag.
They are understood to be Ceracol, a drug used by schizophrenics.
The child was taken to Sunshine Hospital for observation and was in a stable condition on Thursday night.
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Victoria Police said the three-year-old girl became ill about 8pm after she and her mother had been trick or treating on Halletts Way.
“Investigators have been told that the child may have ingested a prescription medication and are currently making inquiries as to how this happened,” spokeswoman Kelly Grindley said.
“At this stage in the early investigation, it is not believed there is any malicious intent surrounding this incident.
“Police are treating this as an isolated incident and have not received any other reports of any similar incidents in the area.”