Larry Birkhead testimony February 21, 2007
Hospitalization April 2006
--------------------------------------
Seidlin: Well, now she’s pregnant, what happens next.
Larry Birkhead: In April of 2006, she called me to come to a hospital….
Seidlin: Were you still with her, many of those nights
LB: Yes, sir.
Seildin: In April 06 she comes to the hospital?
LB: She called me to come to a hospital, because she was having pains and she had told the that she had gotten rushed to a hospital, and I was worried that something was wrong with her and the baby. And she said, “Don’t worry, I’m OK, the baby’s OK” and I said….she said…”do you want to know what the baby is?”. And I said, “You went to the doctor without me?” …..because we were planning on going to the ultrasound on a scheduled visit, and she said, “Don’t get mad, I had to.” And I said, “Why, what’s wrong?” And she said, “Um, I’m OK, but just come see the baby.” And she kept saying that over and over “Do you want to know now?”. And I said, “No, I’ll just wait till I get there.” And I came to the hospital. And she was in the hospital for two weeks um because she was trying to …..um…..get off medications or she was having an adverse reaction to medications while in the hospital, or previous addictions to medications before she went into the hospital, and at that time, um I stayed with her for two weeks and slept in the hospital bed next to her, while Mr. Stern slept on a cot in a corner of the hospital room.
Seidlin: For 2 weeks? From April 6th, for those 2 weeks?
LB: Yes, sir.
Seidlin: Then what happens, if anything?
LB: Um at one point, she was on…..they had her on a drip, trying to wean her off of s…..am I allowed to say the drug’s name?
Milstein: Objection
LB:Objection?
KB: Same objection
Seidlin: You don’t have to answer.
LB: Well, on multiple medications and what happened was Mr. Stern and she had packed a duffel bag and brought it to the hos….
Seildin: So she’s pregnant and now she’s taking medication?
LB: She was taking medication before and during pregnancy.
Seidlin: Were you concerned about that?
LB: I was very concerned about that?
Seidlin: Why?
LB: Because we already had one miscarriage, and every time she put something in her mouth….I thought that…….if…….
Seidlin: It would affect…..
LB: Yes, sir….
Seidlin: ……the welfare of the child.
LB: And her too, as well. And so we had a couple clashes in the hospital room, because she and Mr. Stern brought in a duffel bag and when there wasn’t enough administered through the drips that she was on, they would take it out of the bag and take it on top of the drugs that they were giving at the hospital, and thwarting the efforts by the hospital to get her off the medications.
Ron Rale: Objection, foundation, your Honor.
Seidlin: So noted, you may proceed.
LB: I’m talking about my personal…..
Seidlin: No, you may proceed.
LB: And so after that, she was on at one point a suicide watch in the hospital, and I caught her getting up and she was ripping the IV’s out at night, and I was trying to tell her that…..you know stop her from doing that. And I was trying to help her back and forth from the bathroom and Mr. Stern was assisting her. At the same time, while we in the hospital, she had good times and bad times depending on how she was reacting to the treatment plan and she maintained a baby book at the hospital, where she wrote my name as the daddy, and I put my thumbprint and she put her thumbprint as the mom. And I felt sorry for Mr. Stern because he had no role, but I knew his interest in her and I knew his level of interest, and I didn’t want to offend him.
Seidlin: And what was it?
LB: Well, I think he um…was romantically interested in her, and so what…
Seidlin: He was romantically interested …
LB: And also his ..his… his…long standing interest as her friend. Long before me….I felt..
Seidlin: So you believed in his bonafides as a friend and a hopeful love partner?
LB: Um….I…
Seidlin: Describe it.
LB: Well, can I tell you what I was going with….
Seidlin: You may.
LB: So at that time, I asked her…. I said “Howard’s over here, I feel kind of bad for him.” And she said, “Come here, Howard.” She said, “You put your thumb print here.” And she wrote, “Uncle Howard’ in the baby book. And we stayed in the hospital, she had complications from the plan that they were putting her on. Her body wasn’t agreeing with it. One time she tripped over the IV cart late at night and she asked….she was pulling out her the IV. I said…..she said I was yelling at her, but I said her name loud because I didn’t want her to fall. And she got up as I was sleeping, and when I got up, she took that as me yelling at her. And I think that she was just sensitive at the time, and she asked me if I would leave, or she was going to push the security button. And so I left. And then two days later she called me and says “where are you?”. And I said, “You asked me to leave.” And she didn’t remember.
