POLICE INVESTIGATE TODDLER’S POSSIBLE OD

Dayton girl, 2, in hospital after being found unconscious.

A third Montgomery County toddler has apparently overdosed on opioids within a 10-month span.

Two have died; the condition of a Dayton two-year-old girl suspected of overdosing Tuesday and taken to Dayton Children’s Hospital was unknown Wednesday.

Emergency responders were dispatched Tuesday to an address in the first block of Pointview Avenue at about 4:30 p.m. on a “hurry up” due to an unconscious child.

“Anytime a two-year-old is passed out, it’s fairly unusual,” Dayton police Lt. Steven Bauer said. “In this case, with the height of opioid epidemic, I think there is some suspicion it possibly might be an opioid overdose.”

Bauer said the girl was in serious condition when taken to the hospital.

Some synthetic opioids are so potent that ingesting, inhaling or simply touching a small quantity can result in an overdose, according to authorities.

“Once again, children are victims of adult behavior,” said Ann Stevens, spokeswoman for Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services. “If you’re doing illegal drugs there’s a likelihood your infant or toddler is going to get into your drugs.”

In May, 13-month-old Mari’onna Allen was found dead in her grandmother’s East Fifth Street house in Dayton. The coroner ruled the death was caused by fentanyl and carfentanil, a powerful elephant tranquilizer.

A Harrison Twp. 2-year-old, Lee Hayes, died of an overdose last year. Hayes was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital on Sept. 29. He was the youngest person to die during the year in which 349 people died in the county of drug overdoses, the most on record.

The Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office began an investigation into how Hayes got a hold of the drug, but ran into a lack of evidence, Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said.

The child on Pointview Avenue was with a baby sitter Tuesday as well as others in the house, Bauer said. The child’s mother was not immediately located but police knew her location. Police had no information on the child’s father.

Bauer suggested the child may have ingested an opioid, saying children at that age often explore the world by putting things in their mouths.

As soon as a child can communicate, it’s time to start age-appropriate drug education, Stevens said.

“You need to be very specific you don’t want them touching everything that they find,” she said. Stevens said if a person is going to take drugs, they should sequester themself from children.

“The problem comes after adults have done their illicit drugs they’re too out of it to realize their drugs are still there and are most likely to be harmful to their children,” she said.

Bauer would not speculate whether the child was exposed to a suspected opioid inside or outside the house.

According to the very preliminary investigation, the child was found either in an alley behind the house or somewhere near the house. Police blocked the alley with crime scene tape and brought in a K-9 unit to look for evidence.

Earlier this month in Miami, a 10-year-old boy arrived home, started vomiting and later that night was dead. Somehow Alton Banks unwittingly came into contact with heroin and fentanyl moving about his neighborhood, authorities say.