Zoila Dominici tragically lost her 1-year-old son Nicholas to fentanyl exposure last week. Nicholas attended a home-based day care in The Bronx called Divino Nino, which was discovered to be operating as a drug den. Shockingly, three other toddlers were also hospitalized after inhaling fentanyl fumes. Unfortunately, instances like this are more common than we would like to believe.
According to a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics, between 2005 and 2018, there were 731 children aged 5 and under who lost their lives due to poisoning. The percentage of fatalities caused by opioids increased from less than a quarter to over half during this period. Prior to the opioid epidemic, poisoning cases were actually declining thanks to child-proofing mandates on medication packaging. However, now we find ourselves back at square one.
Fentanyl and methamphetamine fumes are incredibly dangerous, even to police officers investigating these scenes. Furthermore, due to the large quantities of pills that most users consume, fentanyl poses a significant risk to young children if even one pill were to accidentally roll away. The loss of Nicholas Feliz Dominici serves as a heartbreaking example of this danger.
John Walters, the former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, explains, “Of course, the children are always the victims in these things.” Tragically, these incidents usually occur in homes rather than day care centers. Walters highlights the lack of caution exhibited by drug users and emphasizes that these highly dangerous substances are now endangering children’s lives, leading to more overdose victims.
Alarmingly, in 2022 alone, over 350 children under the age of four lost their lives due to fentanyl exposure, mirroring the fate of Nicholas Feliz Dominici. New Mexico is particularly affected by this devastating trend, with 49 children under four dying from drug ingestion in the past four years. In Portland, Oregon, over the summer, three young children died within a 10-day period after being exposed to fentanyl. The Divino Nino day care center in The Bronx, where Nicholas tragically lost his life, was allegedly being used as a storage facility for fentanyl dealers.
Even in states with low populations like Maine, a fatality review panel found that fentanyl was responsible for seven cases of pediatric ingestions in 2022. However, these numbers are likely higher since many hospitals do not test for fentanyl when checking for drug presence in a child’s system. Maralyn Beck, the founder of the non-profit organization New Mexico Child First, acknowledges that children have been accessing drugs and alcohol belonging to adults for a long time. However, she highlights that the deadly nature of fentanyl has completely changed the game, calling for swift action to address the problem and prevent the loss of an entire generation.
To put things into perspective, there were only 184 gun deaths among children aged 5 and under in 2021, which is half the number of deaths caused by opioid poisoning. Yet, discussions on reducing gun violence frequently take place. In contrast, Walters states that we have essentially accepted the drug crisis. He points out that the Biden administration’s goal, as of 2022 with 110,000 overdose deaths nationwide, is only to reduce such fatalities by 13% by 2025. Ultimately, Walters argues that “the official policy is to allow hundreds of thousands of people to die of overdoses on the claim that’s the best the [White House] can do.”
The widespread legalization of drugs, the ease of drug trafficking, and the increasing acceptance of drug use in our culture have all contributed to this alarming situation. These child fatalities represent only a fraction of the problem. Many more children are living with addicted adults who are incapable of protecting them from harm. States like Connecticut and New Mexico are now sending newborns home from the hospital with a “plan of safe care” despite lacking child welfare protocols or consequences for parents who fail to keep their children safe. Additionally, New York City has greatly limited drug testing for new mothers and infants.
While there will always be cases where drug presence goes undetected, situations like Divino Nino show that if we fail to address the drugs we do know about, we are ultimately to blame for the inevitable tragedies that will befall children due to drug overdoses.
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