Drunk
Drunk for life
Debbie Crowell worries that 7-month-old Sabrina may have fetal alcohol syndrome. Crowell, a recovering alcoholic, was forced into treatment after Sabrina's birthday. Now seven months sober, she's learning to be a good mom to her seven children.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tucsonan Debbie Crowell has graciously agreed to share her personal nightmare with Tucson Citizen readers. She hopes her story will prevent another child from being born under the influence of alcohol. Crowell is turning her life around. Read about it in Part six of the Tucson Citizen's package on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
With every sip that Debbie Crowell took from the icy can of Budweiser, the tiny baby growing inside her belly became more and more drunk.
Crowell, 29, knew that as a pregnant woman, she shouldn't drink. But she had drunk during some of her six pregnancies before this one, and each of those babies looked OK to her.
So she drank. When she got up in the morning, she'd start. When she felt as if she'd had too much beer and was about to pass out, she would use cocaine, so she could drink some more.
Sitting in her living room or on the front porch of her Ajo home, she drank until the beer was gone - about an 18-pack every day.
As Crowell got more and more drunk, so did her child, Sabrina, now 7 months old.
Doctors believe Sabrina, who started having seizures last month, may have fetal alcohol syndrome.
And recently, another of Crowell's children, 3-year-old Cory, was found to have FAS and is brain-damaged for life.
"The guilt is tremendous," said Crowell, who finally found help for her alcoholism this year.
"I did it again and again and again. Having to explain that I did that to them is going to be the hardest thing. I don't know how I'm going to tell them. It was something I could have prevented."
If Sabrina has FAS, she would be one of about 5,000 children born in the nation this year with the debilitating syndrome, the leading preventable cause of mental
Debbie Crowell worries that 7-month-old Sabrina may have fetal alcohol syndrome. Crowell, a recovering alcoholic, was forced into treatment after Sabrina's birthday. Now seven months sober, she's learning to be a good mom to her seven children.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tucsonan Debbie Crowell has graciously agreed to share her personal nightmare with Tucson Citizen readers. She hopes her story will prevent another child from being born under the influence of alcohol. Crowell is turning her life around. Read about it in Part six of the Tucson Citizen's package on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
With every sip that Debbie Crowell took from the icy can of Budweiser, the tiny baby growing inside her belly became more and more drunk.
Crowell, 29, knew that as a pregnant woman, she shouldn't drink. But she had drunk during some of her six pregnancies before this one, and each of those babies looked OK to her.
So she drank. When she got up in the morning, she'd start. When she felt as if she'd had too much beer and was about to pass out, she would use cocaine, so she could drink some more.
Sitting in her living room or on the front porch of her Ajo home, she drank until the beer was gone - about an 18-pack every day.
As Crowell got more and more drunk, so did her child, Sabrina, now 7 months old.
Doctors believe Sabrina, who started having seizures last month, may have fetal alcohol syndrome.
And recently, another of Crowell's children, 3-year-old Cory, was found to have FAS and is brain-damaged for life.
"The guilt is tremendous," said Crowell, who finally found help for her alcoholism this year.
"I did it again and again and again. Having to explain that I did that to them is going to be the hardest thing. I don't know how I'm going to tell them. It was something I could have prevented."
If Sabrina has FAS, she would be one of about 5,000 children born in the nation this year with the debilitating syndrome, the leading preventable cause of mental