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Tragedy in Ohio: 18-Month-Old Boy Dies of Suspected Opioid Overdose After 9-Year-Old Calls 911

The 18-month-old Ohio boy may be one of the youngest victims of the opioid epidemic ravaging Ohio.
Image: Oxycodone pain pills
Oxycodone pain pills on display on March 23, 2016 in Norwich, CT.John Moore / Getty Images file

Inside an Ohio morgue Monday lay the tiny body of one of the youngest victims of the opioid epidemic ravaging the state: an 18-month-old boy from Akron.

The infant overdosed on Thursday evening and emergency workers — summoned by a 911 call from the victim’s 9-year-old sibling to their Gale Street home — were able to revive him with a dose of Narcan and get him to the hospital, Lt. Rick Edwards of the Akron Police Department told a local news organization.

Image: Oxycodone pain pills
Oxycodone pain pills on display on March 23, 2016 in Norwich, CT.John Moore / Getty Images file

But on Sunday, the boy died at Akron Children’s Hospital and his body was taken to the Summit County Medical Examiner’s office for an autopsy, the ME’s chief investigator Gary Guenther told NBC News.

“We haven’t done the exam yet,” Guenther said. “Right now his death is being classified as a suspicious death of an 18-month-old. When he was brought it, it was as a suspected opioid overdose. That’s how it was reported.”

Asked if he was the youngest suspected overdose victim he’s seen, Guenther simply replied, “Yes.”

Police did not release the boy’s name. They said the drugs belonged to his mother, who fled the home after police and paramedics arrived.

The surviving child has been turned over to the care of the Summit County Children Services.