LAKE HAVASU CITY — The parents of a four-month-old girl who died following a warm weather outing at Lake Havasu last summer will not be prosecuted for her death. The decision by the Mohave County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) follows extensive investigation, autopsy and review by experts.
Deputy Mohave County attorney James Schoppmann informed Sheriff Doug Schuster and the case officer on May 23 that the MCAO declines to bring charges against southern Californians Matthew and Alyssa Wroblewski in the July 5, 2024 death of Tanna Wroblewski.
Schoppmann said criminal charges are declined due to insufficient evidence to support conviction at trial due to issues involving cause of death. He said three pathologists determined that Tanna’s death was not heat related.
Those medical experts reached different conclusions than the pathologist who conducted the autopsy for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office in Phoenix.
“It is my opinion that that the cause of death is ascribed to complications of environmental heat exposure,” Dr. Tiffany Morrison concluded. “It is further my opinion that the manner of death is accident.”
The Wroblewski’s hired Phoenix lawyer Jack Litwak, whose firm engaged M.D. John Hiserodt, a Garden Grove, California professional who became a doctor 42 years ago. Dr. Hiserodt’s findings are documented in an April 10 correspondence that involves complex medical analysis.
It said the Wroblewski’s tried to protect Tanna during some five hours at the lake in 120-degree weather on July 5, 2024. “Tanna was on the beach, under a shade or in the water the entire time they were at the beach,” Hiserodt’s report stated.
Dr. Hiserodt determined that Tanna died of complications from having aspirated after she was breast fed by her mother.
“The baby regurgitated the recently ingested gastric contents of milk and aspirated the gastric contents into her lungs,” Hiserodt said. “This would cause immediate asphyxia, followed by hypoxia, then unconsciousness.”
Litwak summarized Hiserodt’s findings in his April 10 correspondence with Schoppmann.
“There is clear evidence that Tanna aspirated her milk right after feeding, which caused the anoxic brain injury rather than heat,” Litwak concluded. “The bacteria detected in Tanna’s’ lungs provides further evidence of the asphyxiation event rather than heat stroke or heat exhaustion.”
Litwak said Tanna did not exhibit symptoms associated with heat distress such as profuse sweating, red skin, limp limbs and lack of appetite before she was rushed to Havasu Regional Medical Center at about 5:17 pm. and was officially pronounced dead 6.5-hours later at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
The MCAO sought further expert analysis given the conflicting assessments by Dr. Morrison and Dr. Hiserodt. Schoppmann said two Kingman pathologists sided with the latter.
Litwak said the parents were not negligent or reckless and did nothing wrong as he urged Schoppmann not to take the case to the Grand Jury.
“What happened was a freak accident. These instances of choking/aspirating breast milk are known risks to clinicians around the world,” Litwak said. “It is a well-documented cause of sudden unexpected infant death.”
