Parents Charged After 16-Month-Old Chews On Heroin Baggies, Upper Darby Police Say
Follow CBSPHILLY Facebook | Twitter
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (CBS) - The parents of an Upper Darby 16-month-old boy have been charged after police say the boy chewed on heroin baggies and was found unconscious. Police say the child's mother had also overdosed.
Police charged 36-year-old Nora Boyle and 42-year-old Gregory Searl with endangering the welfare of a child, recklessly endangering another person and health and safety violations.
The incident happened around 5:30 p.m. on Monday. Police say the father came home and found his girlfriend, the child's mother, passed out and the 16-month-old was unconscious.
He took the baby to Delaware County Memorial Hospital, where doctors had to administer Narcan. The baby was then transferred to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is in guarded condition.
Police believe the child retrieved the discarded heroin baggies from a trash can and chewed on them.
"In my opinion, when children get into mom and dad or guardian's habits, and those habits are drug addiction, then why should the poor child suffer? They are putting that baby in harm's way, they are putting that baby at great human danger and they deserve to be punished the way the law can punish them," said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.
A search warrant apparently turned up a dozen empty bags of heroin.
