A 16-month-old is in the hospital, the mother is charged with child neglect, and the Broward Sheriff’s Office was looking for the child’s father after the infant ingested a potentially deadly drug, according to court officials.
Antwanette Shambria Davis, 30, told her public defender attorney she was fighting with the father of her child in her Oakland Park apartment when the Fentanyl pill must have fallen from the father’s possession and the child ate it, said Hector Romero at her first court appearance Tuesday afternoon.
“Miss Davis was being assaulted,” he said. “It was the suspect’s pill or Fentanyl that fell down and, unfortunately, that’s what the child ingested. It’s not like Ms. Davis had it lying around.”
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Broward assistant state attorney Eric Linder countered the drug belonged to Davis.
“The Fentanyl was found directly under Miss Davis’s purse,” he said. “She tested positive, [through] a urine test, for Fentanyl.”
Linder said Broward Sheriff firefighters had to revive the child twice with an antidote.
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"The 16-month-old baby nearly died from ingesting Fentanyl," he said. "Narcan [drug] had to be used twice by paramedics."
According to the arrest report referred to in court, Davis told her 11-year-old to call 911 when the infant showed signs of distress.
“[Davis] saw the child, the [infant] looked like he was going through a medical crisis and then she contacted the ambulance,” Romero said.
Davis remained in the Broward County Jail Wednesday on a $10,000 bond, charged with child neglect causing great bodily harm.
Her two children may end up in their grandmother’s care after the Department of Children and Families investigates the case, Romero said.
Fentanyl is an opioid often used to treat pain in patients with advanced cancer or other severe health issues, but it is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and is addictive and potentially fatal when abused.
