A woman collapsed in court upon seeing her son whom she allegedly tried to suffocate before attempting suicide last year.
The Bangladeshi woman, 24, hugged her four-year-old son, identified as Saeed, and cried when he appeared at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday.
She is on trial for attempting to suffocate her two sons before slitting one of her wrists.
On April 21 last year, her husband returned home from work to find his wife bleeding from her left wrist. His eldest son Saeed was motionless as was their younger son, aged two.
"Every day when I return home from work, Saeed would open the door for me and hug me. That day no one opened. I used my key and found the kids on the bed just like I left them in the morning. My wife was next to the bed bleeding from one arm. She opened her eyes and screamed 'What have I done?'" said the husband, 39.
The father called his brother for help who arrived and took the children and their mother to hospital.
The brother, 30, said he did not know what had happened until he got to the house.
"I found him devastated and in shock. I rushed them to hospital while he wept the whole way there," he said.
The hospital notified police who questioned the mother. She admitted to attempting to kill her children and then herself but said she does not know why she had done so.
A medical report revealed that the younger child suffered heart and lung failure that caused severe brain damage. He was diagnosed as brain dead as a result of asphyxiation and is currently on life support in hospital.
Saeed, who recovered from the assault, attended court on Thursday and ran to hold his mother when he saw her.
A previous mental assessment, ordered by public prosecution, ruled out that the wife was mentally ill.
The husband told the court that despite his wife not showing any signs of mental illness, her family does have a history of mental illness. This led the court to order another comprehensive mental health assessment.
He said his wife was always very quiet.
"Let's say that if I was talking and said 10 words, she would respond with only two. She doesn't talk much; she was often quiet. Her sister back home suffers from a mental illness, and the family has to care for her like she was a child," he said.
The woman faces two counts of attempted murder and a suicide charge.
The court will issue its ruling based on a detailed medical report that will be submitted by a committee at Rashid Hospital following the mental health assessment.
