Bellefonte-area woman charged with child endangerment in newborn’s death
A Spring Township woman was charged Wednesday in the death of her newborn son who died earlier this year after sleeping on a pillowlike pad, which she’d been warned was unsafe.
Amanda Schoen, 33, was accused of endangering the infant by placing him to sleep on a pillow made by The Boppy Co. She acknowledged in an interview with township police that it ran afoul of recommendations from infant safety groups, a detective wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
“I was worried I would be charged because I made the reckless mistake of unsafe sleep,” police quoted Schoen as saying. “I made the decision to put that Boppy in that pack and play knowing full well that it was dangerous.”
Schoen’s son died in March after being flown by medical helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center. The Montour County Coroner’s Office listed his cause of death as undetermined, police wrote.
Schoen told an investigator she let her son sleep with the pillow every night, despite being warned by nurses that it was unsafe. He was placed on his back, but “scooted down further into the pillow” and was not breathing properly, police wrote.
A detective wrote Schoen “told four different stories” and showed no emotion over the course of several interviews. Centre County Deputy Public Defender Patrick Klena declined comment Thursday.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission — the federal agency that oversees thousands of home goods — warned caregivers in October 2020 to never let infants sleep on lounging pads or nursing pillows.
Babies left unattended or sleeping may roll over or their heads may fall in such a way that can block their airway and lead to suffocation.
Schoen was charged with one felony count of child endangerment and one misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person.
She was arraigned Wednesday by District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker, who released her on $100,000 unsecured bail. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 6.
