For more than two years, Scripps News has been independently tracking the fentanyl deaths and poisonings of babies and young children to shine light on trends that might save lives.
Investigative reporter Lori Jane Gliha and investigative producer Brittany Freeman have read through thousands of pages of police documents, child fatality reports, autopsies, and court records.
The Scripps News investigative team obtained more than 80 hours of police body camera footage, interrogation videos, and 911 calls to shine a light on common health trends and repeated mistakes that have led to hundreds of child cases in recent years.
They’ve shared their reporting with health leaders, child protection agencies, members of Congress, and local legislators throughout the country and continue to pursue this project as they uncover more details that could potentially prevent more deaths.
Here are some key things they’ve discovered:
- Many health leaders have recommended testing for fentanyl in a standard drug panel. In some cases, the synthetic drug was not included in standard testing, and patients were sent home without the appropriate treatment or support, or their treatment was delayed.
- Caregivers sometimes confuse their child’s poisoning symptoms – like lethargy and strange breathing/snoring – with other symptoms like those of congestion.
- Children who receive Narcan or naloxone, the opioid reversal antidote, in a timely manner have often survived.
- In one review of cases collected by Scripps News, at least half of the poisoned children or their caregivers had a previous encounter with police or child protective services for a drug-related or child abuse/neglect-related issue.
- Kids are being poisoned when they ingest these drugs. They are either putting fentanyl in their mouths or placing their fingers in their noses or mouths after coming in contact with drugs. Sometimes children ingest the drug because they’ve encountered drug paraphernalia with drug residue on it, like a spoon or a straw, and put the item in their mouth.
- Some parents said they did not realize they were bringing fentanyl into the home or that it might be mixed with a different drug they believed they were consuming.
- Communication gaps between police and child welfare have sometimes preceded a child’s death.
In the coming months, Scripps News will continue its dedicated original reporting by continuing to expose new data, updated research, and other factors that have led to child fentanyl poisonings across the country.
