6-month-old baby survives fentanyl overdose in Fort Myers

Reporter: Jolena Esperto
Published: Updated:
fentanyl
Baby getting chest compressions after overdosing on fentanyl. CREDIT: FMPD

Minute after minute of chest compression helped bring a baby boy back to life after overdosing on fentanyl.

Fort Myers police are giving new details about the case. Nevertheless, it’s unclear if the 6-month-old baby was exposed directly from his mother or her home.

Police say the child was there because his father brought him to visit her.

Investigators believe his mother is to blame. Body camera footage shows her son not moving on top of her car.

Three FMPD officers and a 911 operator raced against the clock to bring the baby back to life using two-finger chest compressions.

“We had to, you know, zone in on doing our jobs and stuff like that,” said Darian Lutz, an FMPD officer, “but it was amazing to see what we did afterward. Having it all click at the end was crazy.”

FMPD said the baby was placed in his car seat inside his mother’s home.

She then laid the child down on a comforter on the floor, and that’s when his mother noticed her 6-month-old son struggling to breathe.

“They gave him Narcan because we didn’t know what was going on with him,” said Lutz. “We didn’t know if he was choking. We didn’t know if it was. We didn’t know why we were doing CPR. We just knew we had to do it.”

She later admitted to police she had used fentanyl powder the day before in her home. Investigators found fentanyl powder on her countertops.

Investigators believe the fentanyl exposure is connected to only the baby’s mother. A judge set her bond at $100,000 and ordered her to have no contact with her baby or 8-year-old child.

According to court records, the baby’s father already had full custody of the baby, in part due to her past drug use.

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