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Fentanyl OD caused toddler’s death

YOUNGSTOWN — The September 2022 death of a toddler has been ruled an accidental overdose by the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office.

According to the coroner’s report, fluid was found in the 20-month-old boy’s lungs, and fentanyl and acetyl fentanyl was found in his body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is a prescription opioid, while acetyl fentanyl is a manufactured street drug, created to be similar to prescription fentanyl.

According to court records, no criminal charges have been filed in this case.

The boy died at 8:44 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2022. He was brought to the Akron Children’s Hospital emergency room in Boardman by a family member less than 15 minutes before his death, according to the report. He came into the emergency room without a pulse and not breathing.

A family member reported the toddler was found unresponsive.

The child’s mother picked him up from the father’s home on the West Side of Youngstown around 7 p.m., then brought him to her mother’ home in Austintown, where she and the toddler had been living for a couple of weeks, according to the report. The toddler fell asleep on his way to the Austintown residence, and the mother put him in bed when they arrived home.

The mother went to bathe the toddler’s older sister, and when she was done, she went to get the toddler to bathe him. She found him unresponsive and not breathing, according to the report, so she rushed him to the emergency room. The report noted purge fluid was found on the side of the bed where the toddler was found unresponsive, the report states.

The toddler was diagnosed with asthma last May, and he was last in the emergency room due to respiratory distress on May 1, 2022, the report states.

The autopsy was conducted by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office on Sept. 20, 2022.

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