Infant Overdose Turns Fatal in Akron, Ohio
On June 1st, in Akron, Ohio, law enforcement officials responded to a call involving an infant boy who overdosed on some form of Opioid.
The call was regarding Tymaine Thompson Jr., a one-year-old boy who was meddling with a drug bag that was openly laying around the house. That evening, the infant suffered from an Opioid overdose.
Big Brother Calls 911 for Overdose Responders
According to authorities, the infants nine-year-old brother placed a call to 911. The older brother called the emergency responders that Thursday evening after noticing his baby brother had stopped breathing.
According to statements made by the infant’s brother, his respiratory depression took place after he was found playing with a bag containing drug residue.
Reports from Fox 8 Cleveland indicate that the boys’ mother, Destaine Carter, had initially dialed 911. However, Carter dropped the call before dispatchers obtained an address.
The infants older brother proceeded to call back and notify dispatchers of their home address. Additionally, he had made several attempts to get his mother on the call with dispatchers for CPR, but had little success.
A police information officer of the Akron Police Department, Lt. Rick Edwards, reported the mother fled the scene upon arrival of the paramedics and police around 6:30 PM.
Narcan to Save an Infant
When the paramedics got to the children’s home, the infant received a dose of an overdose anti-dote Naloxone, otherwise known as Narcan.
Following a rushed transport, when arriving at the Akron’s children’s hospital, a second dose of the anti-dote was administered to completely revive the infant.
Shortly after being revived, the infant started breathing on his own; later being documented in stable condition.
“He’s a hero…He did everything he can do and anything we’d expect. But at this age its heartbreaking to put the 9-year-old in that position where you have to call police and paramedics for 1-year-old.”
-Lt. Rick Edwards, FOX 8 Cleveland
The next day, on June 2nd, the children’s mother was arrested for an outstanding warrant in Portage County on completely un-related charges. She remains in jail to this day.
A Stable Condition Turns Fatal
On Sunday, only three days following the incident, the infant died at Akron Children’s Hospital according to NBC News.
At the time of the report, investigators had yet to determine the exact drugs which led to the infant’s death. However, it is suspected that the drugs were Heroin, Fentanyl or some other Opiate.
The chief investigator at the Summit County Medical Examiner’s office, Gary Guenther, said that the infant is the youngest seen death resulting from a suspected Opiate overdose. Updated reports regarding Tymaine Jr’s autopsy results are not yet available.
Neglected Children of Ohio
As with many other neglected children in Ohio, the older brother of the one-year-old boy was taken into custody by the Summit County Children Services.
In 2015 alone, 28 percent of children who were taken into protective services and placed into foster homes resulted from parental Opioid abuse.
“This is just a tragedy…We had a 2-year-old a 6-year-old and now this is the second one-year-old in a week.“
– Lt. Rick Edwards, FOX 8
It is heart breaking news that this innocent child lost his life, yet he is not the only one. According to the daily caller, another one-year-old boy overdosed, less than a week after Tymaine Jr’s death.
It is suggested that the child was playing with siblings in the backyard when he suffered from the Opioid overdose. This particular incident took place in Akron, the Tuesday after the confirmed death of Tymaine Jr., the Sunday prior.
Moreover, back in March, a two-year-old overdosed and was revived with Narcan, surviving the lethality of Opioids.
Ohio’s High Overdose Death Rate
According to the Ohio Department of Health, the state experienced a 642 percent increase in unintentional drug overdoses from 2000 to 2015.
Despite the launch of a comprehensive response to the Opioid crisis in Ohio, overdose deaths are continuing to abruptly rise.
With nearly 1 billion in spending to combat the crisis in 2016, Ohio still ranks as a leading U.S. state in the count of Opioid overdose fatalities; more specifically, Heroin overdose deaths.
Over the last few years, reports have shown that one in every nine overdose fatalities in the U.S. take place in the state of Ohio.
In the 2017 Fiscal Year budget, Ohio has invested close to $1 billion to address the issue from every angle.
