3-30-08
Emergency personnel responding to a 911 call airlifted a  9-month-old girl to the hospital. The child was having seizures and had stopped breathing. “She was unresponsive, her body was flaccid” reported a nurse in the ER. Doctors worked feverishly to revive the child.

The real shock, however, came when tests revealed the cause
of this little girls troubles: She had overdosed on cocaine. Blood tests revealed toxic amounts of the drug in her system.

The 9-month-old was revived and is expected to recover. She will be placed with relatives when released from the hospital, and child services opened an abuse investigation. At the time of the incident, the girl was with her father, Ralph Dipiero Jr. He called 911 when the child stopped breathing. She was airlifted to the ER Thursday night. A later police search of the family’s Scottsdale home on Friday turned up no illegal drugs.

It’s “more common than people might think,” reported a  physician at Phoenix Children’s Hospital where the little girl was taken. “Adults, once they’re done partying, they pass out, or forget to clean-up part of their stash.” Young children who are exposed to drugs can suffer heart attacks, strokes, seizures, and of course, death, if they directly consume too much of it.