A Louisiana mother was arrested for negligent homicide after her 2-year-old son died from a fentanyl overdose.
According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Whitney Ard’s toddler-aged son was taken in an ambulance from his home on Denova Street to a hospital June 26. Deputies said the child died shortly after arriving at the care facility.
Ard told deputies that the child slept with her mother the night before. Ard said the toddler woke up very early and asked her for something to eat. Ard said she made a bowl of cereal and placed it on the floor.
Ard said around 7 a.m. June 26, she woke up to find the toddler “cold to the touch, unresponsive, with his fingertips, mouth, and tongue blue in color,” the report says.
The child was taken outside the home and a friend of Ard’s administered CRP until an ambulance came.
On Aug. 2, the coroner determined the child’s death was caused by a fentanyl overdose. The report said the child had 14 ng/mL in his blood.
Deputies investigating the home said they found the corner of a clear plastic bag “containing white powdery residue,” near the bowl of cereal on the floor.
During an interview, the 2-year-old’s older sister told investigators she “has seen a lot of pills on her mother’s bed, and her brother ‘ate mom’s pills.'”
Medical records show the child was taken to the hospital in April and the beginning of June for “lethargic behavior, acute respiratory failure and seizures.”
April 12, the child was taken to the emergency room “unresponsive, with altered mental status and respiratory failure,” deputies said. The child was treated with Narcan and released four days later. Medical professionals said they did multiple scans, but found no evidence of the baby having seizures.
June 4, the 2-year-old was taken to the emergency room “with an episode of unresponsiveness,” and treated with Narcan.
The Department of Children and Family Services did not remove the child from the care of the mother after the two hospital visits where the child had to be resuscitated with Narcan or after the mother’s arrest following an East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s investigation into her house being used as a drug den.
Ard was arrested in May after deputies said they found drugs hidden throughout her home on Denova Street. She was released from the East Baton Rogue Parish Prison on June 24.
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