‘Just in time’: Minneapolis police find infant twins near death who ingested fentanyl on same day

A Minneapolis mother’s call to 911 reporting that one of her infant twins was gasping for air sent police to the home, where they found her children on separate visits one night had ingested fentanyl and were near death, according to a child protection order.

The order pointed to the suspicion that the fentanyl was purposely put in the infants’ bottles or was in some manner given to them intentionally before they overdosed on Jan. 2.

The officers were sent to family’s residence in the 400 block of NE. Broadway “just in time to save two children in the same home who were overdosing on fentanyl,” read a statement from police and a department incident report.

The statement characterized the circumstances of the back-to-back visits as “a heartbreaking situation that could have ended in unimaginable tragedy.”

Police said they have yet to make any arrests in connection with the overdoses, while their investigation continues. The Minnesota Star Tribune is not naming the parents, because they have yet to be charged.

The child protection order filed in court by Hennepin County Human Services spells out in detail not only the circumstances of the 2½-month-old twins overdosing while their parents and a 2-year-old son were home, but notably how investigators suspect that one of the infants ingested fentanyl that was in their bottle.

The child protection case file disclosed that the twins both stopped breathing at one point but were expected to survive, while the 2-year-old showed no symptoms of drug exposure.

Police said Monday that no arrests have been made. The mother failed to appear for a hearing on Wednesday, the same day the child protection order was filed.

According to child protection documents and police:

The mother, an admitted fentanyl user, gave birth on Nov. 2 at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and declined a drug test after her twins showed signs of being born with illicit drugs in their systems.

Medical personnel at Children’s Hospital Minneapolis treated the twins’ symptoms with morphine. One of the twins, in particular, was easily irritable and had a high-pitched cry while being “difficult to console.” On Nov. 5, the twins were suffering from withdrawal and placed on methadone.

Two weeks after giving birth, the mother told a child protection investigator that it was 21 weeks into her gestation before she realized she was pregnant. She said she then stopped using drugs but relapsed about a month to six weeks before giving birth. She acknowledged fentanyl as her drug of choice.

The mother agreed with the county the next day to have a relative move in as a caregiver. However, she tested positive for fentanyl use on Dec. 6.

A social worker learned from the mother on Dec. 20 that police raided the home that day on a report of drugs being sold out of the residence. She said officers found cocaine in a jacket that was not hers.

On the day of the overdoses, the mother called 911 and said she was bottle feeding her twins — a boy and a girl — when the boy was having trouble breathing. Police and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel arrived and saw the child was “gasping for air and struggling to breathe.” Once at HCMC, the child received two doses of Narcan, an opioid antidote.

That same day, police and EMS staff were called back to the home and saw that the twin girl was in her father’s arms and “unresponsive at that time as well.” She was rushed to HCMC and her condition was stabilized.

A child protection investigator found out that it “was unlikely that the children would have been this sick if exposure was from [the mother] using and not washing her hands or changing their clothes before having contact with the children. ... It was more likely that the bottles or formula were directly exposed — for example, fentanyl being placed directly in the bottle for some reason, and the bottle not being rinsed out, or the children were intentionally exposed.”

While the twin are expected to survive, “the prognosis was still unknown.”

When told of the twins testing positive for fentanyl, the mother had no response, nor did she offer an explanation for them being exposed.

Two days after the twins overdosed, the 2-year-old was tested and the results came back positive for fentanyl. County officials placed him in foster care with a relative. The father also tested positive for fentanyl use in the month the twins were born.

The mother’s criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for theft and fleeing police. The father’s record includes convictions for a first-degree drug offense, drunken driving, domestic assault and disorderly conduct.

Kyeland Jackson of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.