Pennsylvania parents fell asleep while their 11-month-old son overdosed on fentanyl in backseat of car
WEST FALLOWFIELD TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA: The parents of an 11-month-old Pennsylvania boy have been arrested and charged after the infant overdosed on fentanyl in the backseat of their car as they slept.
The shocking incident happened this past Wednesday, September 25, after Kristen Lynn Bristow, 30, and Charles Robert Salzman Jr., 31, bought nine bags of heroin and injected five of them in a bathroom at the latter's mother's home on Limestone Road, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Shortly after, they told Salzman's mother, Nancy, that they were going to clean out Bristow's Honda Civic which was parked at the back of their home. Their son followed them and crawled into the car.
When the couple did not return for some time, Nancy went to check on them and saw the infant slumped over in his seat, unconscious. She found Bristow asleep in the front passenger seat of the car and Salzman behind the driver's seat, "not sleeping but not reacting."
The 31-year-old then came to and handed his son to his mother, who tried to desperately revive the child before calling 911. When emergency medical services arrived at the scene, they administered three doses of Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal medication, and transported him to Nemours Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, where he is expected to survive.
When questioned by the police at the scene, Salzman said he believed the infant had put a small bottle cap in his mouth which had a white powdery substance consistent with heroin or fentanyl.
When the Pennsylvania State Police searched Nancy's home, they reportedly found numerous baggies containing a "white powdery substance, numerous used hypodermic needles" and "several glass smoking devices containing residue." Bristow and Salzman were subsequently charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child in connection to the incident and are being held at the Chester County Prison on $150,000 bonds.
A representative for the Chester County public defender's office told CNN that a lawyer would be assigned Salzman and that Bristow would likely be given a conflict attorney since their office cannot represent two defendants from the same case.