A baby died May 9 in Syracuse after being exposed to 23 times the amount of fentanyl it would take to kill an adult, according to Syracuse.com.
Liam Sauve’s mother, Elizabeth Sauve, and her boyfriend, Quyen Huynh, were charged with second-degree manslaughter, Syracuse.com reported. Law enforcement officials determined they gave the 11-month-old baby fentanyl to calm him down, the outlet reported.
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Baby Liam Sauve had enough fentanyl in his system that he most likely went into cardiac arrest, according to the medical examiner.— Rylee Kirk (@kirk_rylee) November 30, 2022
The baby had 69 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl in his system, the medical examiner told Onondaga County Child Protective Services, according to Syracuse.com. Three nanograms would kill an adult, the outlet noted. (RELATED: Drug Cartel Operative Claims Rainbow Fentanyl Was Not Created To ‘Make Kids Addicts’)
The baby either inhaled “copious amounts” of fentanyl, was “covered in fentanyl,” or was “in contact with it for many hours,” the medical examiner said, according to the outlet. He likely went into cardiac arrest within minutes of consumption.
Sauve tested positive for Benzodiazepines a couple of weeks prior to Liam’s death, according to Syracuse.com. Huynh previously tested positive for fentanyl during his addiction counseling treatment and was on probation when Liam died, the outlet noted.
About 107,622 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending in January 2022, according to the CDC. This is a 15% increase from 2020. About 75% of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Only two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.