*By now we are so used to hearing about adults overdosing on Oxycontin or heroin. But I don’t think I will ever be able to wrap my brain around this happening to a child. Yet is has, and apparently seven times…
…to a child under the age of five. WTF?
According to Inside Edition 4-year old Tyranne Beckless was found unresponsive in his Milwaukee home last Saturday; and although two people, the kid’s parents, have yet to be identified, they have been arrested but not charged with anything.
Darrell Rayshawn Woodson, 35, and Margarita Balderas, 34, have allegedly taken to giving their children “chill pills” and in February they were charged with the death of their 3-year-old daughter, London Woodson.
Police say the couple’s other children told them that Woodson and Balderas put oxycodin in London’s bottle.
The death of a 2-year-old named James Vessell, Jr. came about after he found and swallowed pills in his mother, Martis Dickerson’s purse. Dickerson has been charged with his death.
Sara J. Schreiber, who oversees the toxicology lab at the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, told EMS1.com that in most cases the opioid deaths of young children are preventable.
“In the case of a toddler, especially if they’re mobile, they’ve got access to a lot of things in the home as long as they’re within their reach,” Schreiber said. “So the risk is there and the danger is there inherently just by having those drugs available in the home.”
