Toddler With Fentanyl, Cocaine In System Hospitalized, Father Charged With Child Endangerment

A toddler was unresponsive in a day care and it was later found that he had drugs in his system. This is a representational image showing a baby on March 20, 2007. Getty Images/Christopher Furlong

A 14-month-old child, who was found unresponsive at his day care, had fentanyl and cocaine in his system. The father of the toddler was charged with child endangerment, local media reported. The incident took place at St. Loius, Missouri.

The boy was later resuscitated Tuesday with the help of Narcan, a treatment that combats the effects of opioids, according to court papers. The 38-year-old father, identified as Gayron D. Sloan was held on a bail of $10,000. He told investigators he sells fentanyl and cocaine and stores the drugs at his home.

Authorities did not name the day care where the child became ill.

In a similar incident that took place in North Carolina, a father was charged with child endangerment after his 3-year-old son tested positive for methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana. In December, a Henderson County grand jury indicted Kerry David Greer on an escape charge. Deloris Yvonne Belcher, who is the child’s mother, was also indicted on an abandoning or endangering a child charge.

A Child Protective Services official said at the time that Greer tested positive for marijuana and Belcher tested positive for meth and marijuana, the affidavit read.

In another incident in December, an 18-month-old girl died and it was later found that she had enough fentanyl in her to kill several adults. The parents — Antonio Floyd, 28, and Shantanice Barksdale, 27 — faced murder charges in the Christmas Day incident that took place in Macomb County, Michigan.

The Macomb County Medical Examiner's Office told police the child had an "extraordinary level of the narcotic Fentanyl in her system at the time of death."

Prosecutor Eric Smith said in a news release earlier this month: "The nation is experiencing an opioid epidemic. However, to see an infant experience such a tragic death on a Christmas morning as a result of ingesting a large quantity of her parents’ Fentanyl is truly gut-wrenching." He added that this type of criminal behavior "will be met with the full weight" of the prosecutor's office.