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Opiate Abuse

Morphine in Breast Milk Kills 6 Week Old Infant

posted 01:41 AM EST, Tue June 28, 2011
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Opiate Tainted Breast Milk Kills infant © Roayce Bair

A 37 year old woman in South Carolina is facing negligent homicide charges after consuming such heavy quantities of opiates as to turn her breast milk toxic.

by John Lee Google+ Facebook

Police say 37 year old Stephanie Greene is facing homicide by negligence or child abuse charges over the death of her 6 week old infant last year. They allege that Green used fraudulent prescriptions to obtain substantial quantities of the opiates fentanyl and hydrocodone and that she used these medications in such large quantities that her breast milk became toxic and led to the death of her 6 week old infant.

Commenting on the long investigation leading up to the arrest, Tony Ivey of the Spartanburg County Sherriff’s office explained, "Doing toxicology tests and things like that, we wanted to make sure, and the coroner's office wanted to make sure that we had done everything correctly and possible to make sure we understood fully what had happened to this child, how this child died and who was responsible for it."

Sherriff Ivey also took the opportunity to demand that mothers of young children be vigilant about the medications they use while breastfeeding, saying, “if you're taking medication or whatever, follow the doctor's guidelines, consult your doctor, because this is something that should never have happened to an infant child like that.”

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Story Highlights
  • Overdose: An infant OD'd on the morphine floating through his mother's breast milk.