The two-week-old boy was rescued by his father, who returned home on August 18 to find the machine running with his son, along with the laundry, inside. The 32-year-old mother faces charges of attempted murder.
"As a result of these actions, the child was admitted to hospital in a state of general hypothermia, and with bodily injuries - pulmonary edema [fluid accumulation in the lungs], a closed craniocerebral trauma, and fractured ribs," said a prosecutors' spokesman in the Gvardeysky district of Russia's exclave on the Baltic.
The official said the child's mother was already on medical records as suffering from a severe mental disorder, and that she had been admitted to the local psychiatric clinic for treatment several times in the past.
An investigation is underway, to establish "to what extent the woman was in control of her actions, and whether she in fact intended to kill her child," he said.
