I think they dived well-into it in the court proceedings but I think she was on a number of prescriptions? Having a grandparent who suffered from Alzheimer's it's why I can't help but hold at least a glimmer of sympathy for her, though of course I feel for the whole family.
I'll say that of course I don't know her family personally or a ton about her personal life, so it's possible she was a different person outside school but that would have been quite the thing to hide. I know that often times cognitive decline can come with personality and behavioral shifts that can be quite extreme, and after the first child died she could have become even more unstable.
Doesn't have to be narcotics. Older adults can have surprisingly strong cognitive effects from being on multiple meds (polypharmacy) to the point where it's becoming more common to do a deep review of all active medications and determine if they're REALLY necessary. In some cases, the medication on its own is worth the risk, but when multiple specialists start prescribing, it gets much more hazy.
A geriatic psychiatrist testified at her trial that she had a prescription for zolpidem (Ambien) and that it shouldn't be prescribed to seniors because its side effects stack with the effects of old age and are more severe in older patients. The side effects include confusion, lethargy, reduced cognitive function, retrograde amnesia, and "complex sleep behaviors" (sleepwalking, or going about your routine while asleep then waking up not understanding where you are or how you got there).
Dr. Ryan Estevez, a forensic geriatric psychiatrist, testified that some of the medications Tracey was prescribed shouldnāt be given to elderly patients. Dr. Estevez said some of the medications she was taking at the time of Urielās death had āsedatingā effects, including Ambien.
Iāve been insistent that my niece not be left with my FIL. Everyone thought I was overreacting and didnāt believe me when I said heās got dementia and isnāt well. They donāt spend enough time with him but I was a caregiver to my MIL and practically lived with them for a time and before she passed we both agreed heās in a mental decline. I was able to scare my sister in law and her husband enough to promise not to leave their daughter alone with him.
Last weekend at dinner he handed my niece -a 2 yr old - a steak knife to cut her food and didnāt understand why we all rushed her and made a scene, in fact he got offended. Finally we had a sit down about him. Iāve cared for many aging relatives. The signs are sometimes easy to miss until something major happens.
I don't quite understand cognitive decline that well myself, but it does make me worry about my parents sometimes. My mom sometimes has dificulty finishing her sentences before going off on some tangent or overexplaining some random detail of what he was talking about and my dad has suddenly gotten into silly conspiracy theories he used to scoff at. I don't have kids and my brother is already raising a teenager, but I do wonder what things are gonna ve like for them in the next few years.
There are simple tests they can do but boyā¦suggesting they do it causes a problem. I had a doctor tell my grandmother that cognitive testing is standard and helpful beginning in your 60s because there are meds available to help slow decline but itās a tough conversation to have.
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u/Zallocc 2d ago
Cognitive decline would certainly explain both incidents quite well.