Florida Mother Arrested After 11-Month-Old Daughter's Fentanyl Exposure Death

KEY POINTS

The child's grandmother found her turning blue and tried chest compression
The accused said she gave the child medicine for cold
The accused's boyfriend said they did not call 911 as it would have been "expensive"

A woman in Florida was arrested in connection to the death of her 11-month-old daughter due to exposure to the synthetic opioid, fentanyl.

According to the Port Orange police, the child, Luna, was taken to a hospital on Jan. 28 in an unresponsive condition. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The toddler’s death was recently determined to be fentanyl toxicity, NBC-affiliated WESH reported.

The mother, 26-year-old Ises Sellers, was arrested Friday. She told the police that she had given her daughter Zarbees medication for children because she had a cold, CBS-affiliated WKMG reported. Then they took a nap together with Luna laying on her “chest to chest.”

Sellers’ boyfriend told the police he had gone to Walgreens and when he returned he found the mother-daughter napping together. But when they tried to wake Luna, the toddler had difficulty keeping her eyes open. A 5-year-old girl was also in the house when the toddler was exposed to the opioid, reported WKMG.

Sellers and her unidentified partner did not call 911. When asked the reason behind not making the emergency call, the boyfriend said to the police, “I guess we could’ve, 911 is just very expensive and I thought we would get there faster.”

As the couple was deciding to take the girl to a hospital, the child's grandmother, who was visiting their house, found that Luna had turned blue in her car seat. The grandmother told investigators that she took Luna out of her car seat and tried chest compression in an attempt to save the baby girl's life. She then asked Sellers to call 911.

Paramedics at the scene attempted life-saving measures before taking her to Halifax Hospital for treatment.

Sellers’ boyfriend told investigators the couple had stopped using heroin, but had a prescription for Suboxone, an opioid medication, which he kept in the master bedroom. However, according to text messages between the couple, they had taken drugs until Jan. 24, four days before Luna’s death, WKMG said.

After it was confirmed the child had died from the exposure to the deadly opioid, the police obtained a warrant on July 16 to arrest Sellers. She was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, possession of cocaine, escape and resisting without violence.