INDIANAPOLIS — A new casualty is emerging in the drug crisis that is ravaging our community. A growing number of young children are accidentally overdosing on opioids.
"We're seeing quite a bit of this right now," said Dr. Greg Faris, the assistant medical director for Indianapolis EMS. "Medics are going into homes and finding kids overdosed or are in respiratory distress from overdose. And then we're also seeing it in the emergency department as well."
Over the last five years, Indianapolis ambulance crew have seen a 59% increase in dispatch calls for possible drug overdoses involving kids 17 and younger, according to IEMS.
And medics have been giving the anti-overdose drug naloxone to children much more often than they did five years ago.
IEMS reported that naloxone was used on children 39 times last year, up from just three times in 2019.
Since 2019, medics have used naloxone on children 89 times — 18 of those patients, or about one-in-five, were age 5 and younger, according to IEMS.
Medics have used naloxone on children 89 times since 2019 — 18 of those patients, or about one-in-five, were age 5 and younger. Source: Indianapolis EMS.
Police have also been seeing an increasing number of kids overdosing, said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Nicholle Flynn.
"These are toddlers," said Flynn. "So, they're finding pills. Sometimes it's just a little bit of dust that could be there from the manufacturing or preparation of the drugs."
Flynn is a supervisor in IMPD's child abuse unit. She said IMPD investigated 13 child overdoses last year; in three of those cases a child died.
Most often, she said, the drug these kids are overdosing on is fentanyl.
"And just a little bit of dust, a little bit of residue, is enough to make that child very sick and even pass away because their bodies cannot handle the any amount of that drug," said Flynn.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used in hospitals as a powerful pain killer. The drug is about 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Marion County Coroner's Office has been sounding an alarm on fentanyl abuse in recent years.
In 2022, the coroner's office reported that 2.3 people died every day from an overdose in Marion County — and fentanyl was by far the leading cause of those overdose deaths.
When a child overdoses, Flynn said they are often in homes where drugs are being sold or living in homes where people are using the drugs.
Court records say that was the case last summer when one little girl overdosed twice at an Indianapolis apartment.
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According to court records, the 11-month-old girl overdosed on fentanyl in July.
The next month — while police were still investigating and just days after prosecutors say lab tests confirmed synthetic marijuana and fentanyl pills were found at the scene — the same toddler overdosed a second time in the family's apartment, according to court records.
The little girl survived both overdoses. In October, Marion County prosecutors charged her parents, Jasmine Clark and Cartez Morris, with felony neglect.
Nikole Young said the growing number of child overdoses is another of the many ways the disease of addiction destroys lives and families.
"There is a factor when you're actively using that nothing matters," Young said. "Absolutely nothing matters — not my children, not my family, not my house, not my car. The only thing that matters is my next use."
Young, too, is a mother who said she is recovering after years of addiction to methamphetamines, opioids and whatever other drugs she could get her hands on.
Young has been in recovery for nearly five years and now runs the Heart Rock Recovery House, a housing program for mothers that is affiliated with Overdose Lifeline.
Young said these families are in crisis and need help. In her case, she needed intensive treatment followed by on-going therapy and work.
"Obviously, my traumas never heal, but I have a different way to deal with it today," Young said. "I have coping skills so I don't have to pick up, and I don't have to drink, and I don't have to use today."
There are better ways to deal with drug users than sending them to prison, Young said.
And Young said that while addiction doesn't excuse the crime that hurt children in these overdose cases, she wishes there were more treatment and recovery options available in Indiana.
"The brain is hijacked," Young said. "So, we do commit the crime but it's based on the guiding force of the drugs and alcohol."
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on X/Twitter: @vicryc.
Need help?
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, call 211 to connect with resources in your area or visit the Indiana Addiction Treatment website.
