Mother of newborn hurt at hospital sent to prison

A 25 year-old woman accused of passing out from snorting heroin and taking a sleeping pill in a Grafton hospital six days after giving birth last year was sentenced in Ozaukee County Circuit Court Monday to two years in prison for allowing her baby to fall from her hospital bed, causing the infant to suffer multiple skull fractures.

West Bend resident Janet B. Solis was also sentenced by Judge Steve Cain to four years of extended supervision following her incarceration after pleading guilty to child neglect that resulted in great bodily harm during the Oct. 13 hearing. 

Devin R. Berg, the 25-year-old father  of the infant and the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, is accused of bringing Solis drugs at Aurora Medical Center and faces the same child neglect charge. Berg, also of West Bend, has pleaded not guilty to the charge and his case is pending. 

Solis gave birth on Oct. 29, 2024, to a baby who according to tests had fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana in his system and was suffering withdrawal symptoms, according to a criminal complaint. 

Solis and the infant were still at Aurora Medical Center on Nov. 3, when at 9 p.m. a nurse checked on Solis, who was in the bathroom while her son was on the hospital bed unattended. The nurse counseled Solis about the dangers of leaving an infant unattended on a bed.

At about midnight on Nov. 4, Solis was checked again and everything appeared to be fine, but a nurse who went to her room at about 2 a.m. found Solis unconscious on the bed and her baby on the floor under the bed with a bottle next to him.

The baby was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit and diagnosed with two skull fractures consistent with falling from a bed onto a tile floor.

During an interview with Grafton police detective Dustin Cline, Solis said she uses heroin two to three times a day, and although she initially denied Berg was a drug user, she later said he does heroin and supplies her with drugs, according to the complaint.

Solis said that when she went to Aurora Medical Center on Oct. 29, she brought with her what she thought would be enough heroin to get her through her stay and snorted it two to three times a day in the bathroom of her hospital room, the complaint states.

Solis, however, said her stay was extended, and on Nov. 2 Berg came to the hospital to bring her more heroin and a sleeping pill, according to the complaint.

She said that when the nurse checked on her at 9 p.m. Nov. 3, she was in the bathroom using heroin.

After using heroin and taking the sleeping pill, Solis said, she didn’t remember anything until 2 a.m. when she was woken up by nurses after they found her baby on the floor.

During an interview with West Bend police detective Stacie Bruss, Berg said he was at the hospital with Solis from Oct. 29 to Nov. 3, and when hospital staff members asked him about Solis’ drug use, he said he didn’t know anything about it, the complaint states.

Berg said he wasn’t there when his infant son fell off the bed but knew about it because Solis had called him and said the nurses were being ridiculous about it, according to the complaint.

After repeatedly denying he had used drugs during the last two years, Berg admitted he and Solis were daily heroin users and said he drove to Milwaukee once or twice a week to buy the drugs. Berg admitted bringing heroin to Solis in the hospital, the complaint states. 

Although a small amount of suspected cocaine or fentanyl, as well as what was believed to be marijuana vaping devices and drug paraphernalia, were reportedly found in Solis’ hospital room, neither she nor Berg faced drug charges in Ozaukee County. The suspected drugs were found by the hospital’s public safety staff during a search of her room after the infant was injured, but instead of reporting them to authorities, the public safety employees threw them away in a trash compactor, according to a criminal complaint.

  Aurora Medical Center did not report the incident to police. Instead, it reported the child’s injury to Washington County Child Protective Services. That agency reported it to the West Bend Police Department, which then notified the Grafton Police Department, the complaint states.

The Grafton Police Department was contacted on Nov. 4 and obtained Child Protective Services reports that indicated there were ongoing concerns about drug use by Solis and Berg. Solis did not have prenatal care because she was afraid Child Protective Services would become involved and admitted to using heroin and smoking marijuana while she was pregnant, according to the complaint. 

An Aurora Medical Center security department report obtained by police indicates that on Nov. 2 — two days before the infant was injured — hospital staff members raised concerns about Solis and Berg possibly using drugs at the hospital, according to the complaint.

During an interview in November 2024 shortly after Solis and Berg were charged, Grafton Police Chief Jeff Caponera said he discussed the hospital’s handling of the incident with Aurora Medical Center President Carla LaFever.

“They (the hospital) have a policy in place that prevents law enforcement from being called to the hospital every single time a patient comes in with drugs,” Caponera said, adding that security employees were also following hospital policy when they destroyed the drugs found in Solis’ room.

But, Caponera said at the time, he intended to work with the hospital to ensure its polices intended to protect patient care also allow for authorities to be notified when serious crimes are suspected to have occurred. 

  “I understand them not wanting to call us every time someone shows up with drugs, and we want to make sure people feel comfortable going to the hospital to get treated without being worried about law enforcement being called, but at the same time I need the hospital to understand that in cases like this, where there was gross negligence and drugs involved — and I don’t care how small the amount was — we need to be called,” he said.

Messages left for LaFever in November were returned by an Aurora Health Care spokesperson who did not answer questions but provided this statement, “Our practice is to care for all patients in a manner that is supportive and does not deter them from seeking necessary care. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement and, out of respect for patient privacy, we cannot comment further.” 

Solis and Berg were also charged in November 2024 with possession of narcotic drugs and child neglect not resulting in injury in Washington County Circuit Court. According to Ozaukee County court records, that case was dismissed as part of a plea agreement but read into the record of the Ozaukee County case against Solis, which means that Cain was free to consider it when sentencing her.

Berg is also charged in Ozaukee County with misdemeanor bail jumping because at the time of the hospital incident he was free in lieu of bail in connection with a charge of first-offense operating while intoxicated with a child younger than 16 in the vehicle in Waukesha County. The child was Solis’ 5-year-old daughter, according to court records. 

He has since pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to 25 days in jail.

Solis had been held in jail in lieu of $25,000 bail since her arrest in November and prohibited from having contact with her infant son. During Monday’s hearing, Cain ruled that whether she can have contact with the child while she is on extended supervision is up to her probation agent.