One child has died and three remain hospitalized after being exposed to opioids at Divino Niño Daycare in New York City.Photo:Google Maps
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A 1-year-old is dead and three other young children remain hospitalized after drug paraphernalia was discovered at a daycare center in the Bronx.
In apress conferenceFriday night, New York City MayorEric Adams, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny provided an update on the ongoing investigation into the incident, which occurred Friday afternoon.
Adams announced that four children attending the Divino Niño Daycare “appeared to have come in contact with an opioid that led to hospitalization for three of the children, and one child is DOA — died — from this interaction.”
Kenny provided more details, sharing that NYPD “received a 911 call for three unconscious children” at 2:43 p.m. on Friday.
“All three children were unresponsive and demonstrating symptoms of opioid exposure,” Kenny said during the press conference. “Narcan was administered to all three of these children in an attempt to save their lives.”
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, NYPD identified the children as an 8-month-old girl, a 1-year-old boy and a 2-year-old boy.
NYPD confirmed that the 1-year-old, identified as Nicholas Dominici, was pronounced dead at Montefiore Medical Center, where all three children were taken to seek medical attention.
The 2-year-old boy remains in critical condition, and the 8-month-old girl is stable, according to the statement.
During Friday’s press conference, Kenny also stated that another young child at Divino Niño Daycare had suffered from similar symptoms.
“We learned that another child — a male, 2 years old — was removed from this same daycare center earlier in the day, at 12:15 p.m. Once home, the child’s mother noticed that the kid was acting lethargic and unresponsive. He was brought to BronxCare hospital, where he was administered Narcan and his life was saved,” Kenny said.
The boy is also in stable condition, according to the NYPD.
The investigation is ongoing, Kenny said.
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Officials also addressed the daycare’s clean history with respect to health violations.
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said that no violations had been discovered since the daycare, which he called a “home-based childcare site,” opened in January.
Vasan said that as a father himself, “my heart’s breaking tonight,” before he provided more information on the dangers of exposure to opioid drugs.
“A small child, not someone we would think would be at risk of interacting with opioids, has come into contact with a powerful substance,” he said. “Which can — through either inhalation, ingestion or touching of the skin — intoxicate the recipient. We don’t know what happened in this case, and as the Chief said, there is an active investigation.”
“Tonight is every parent’s worst nightmare," he said. “Our children are a gift from God in this world. They’re innocent, we must always protect them. As a father, I can tell you, my kids are my heart. And my heart is heavy this evening.”
Caban continued, “I don’t know exactly what happened to those babies. My chief of detectives, Joe Kenny, is leading the investigation and will get us those answers.”
He concluded, “There is one thing I do know, and that is: we should not be here. These children do not deserve this.”
ABC7 Newsreported that the children ate something around 1 p.m. and then took a nap. When workers tried to wake them up around 2:30 p.m., three of the children were unconscious.
As for Dominici, the outlet reported that an autopsy will be conducted to determine his cause of death. Urine and blood samples also will be taken from the three other children to determine what type of drugs they were exposed to.
source: people.com
