20 Feb Fentanyl exposure: Children are most vulnerable
Fentanyl exposure has killed one child in Massachusetts and sickened at least two others in what has become a surge of juvenile overdose incidents nationwide.
Children are most vulnerable to the drug’s powerful respiratory depression, according to the FDA, which recommends disposing of fentanyl by flushing it down the toilet.
“You have to be very, very vigilant with children and make sure all the pill bottles have childproof tops and make sure that any other medication is completely out of their reach,” said Dr. Barbarajean Magnani, pathologist in chief at Tufts Medical Center.
Precious Wallaces, 11, of Haverhill died in December. Authorities say her great-uncle fed her the drug. The parents of a Lawrence 1-year-old girl are now charged with trafficking fentanyl after she was exposed to the drug and hospitalized. In 2017, a 10-month-old in Methuen was sickened after ingesting fentanyl. News reports of other cases around the country include:
- In North Carolina, 10-month-old Tania Tatum was killed last May by fentanyl toxicity. Her father was charged with second degree murder, and her mother with child abuse.
- In Cincinnati, Jessica Hayes got five years for involuntary manslaughter in December after her 6-month-old daughter, Danielle Hale, died from fentanyl poisoning.
- In Pennsylvania, a 17-month-old child died in August after her mother gave her a sippy cup laced with fentanyl, prompting homicide and child endangerment charges.
In other cases across the country, children have been revived at the hospital following fentanyl exposure:
- In November, a 1-year-old baby in North Carolina was found unresponsive after being exposed fentanyl, heroin and opiates.
- Last month, an Illinois woman was charged with endangering the life of a child after allegedly exposing a 7-month-old baby to fentanyl.
- In St. Louis, a 2-year-old was found to have fentanyl in her bloodstream and was hospitalized with breathing issues.
The synthetic pain reliever is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine according to the CDC. Fentanyl gets into organs quicker than other drugs and has a rapid onset of action, Magnani said.
“Sometimes this can be very quick, because we’ll see patients who are ingesting the drug and literally the needle is still in their arm and they’re deceased,” Magnani said.
Fentanyl binds to receptors in the body that control breathing and other vital bodily functions. Those receptors can produce a high but they can also inhibit breathing.
“It shuts down the respiration and that’s the most dangerous part of it,” Magnani said, adding that overdose-stopping medication such as naloxone forces drugs off the receptors, which is what saves patients.
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