Alabama mom charged after her 1-year-old overdoses on fentanyl; sheriff’s deputy’s quick action saved child

Published 5:45 pm Thursday, October 28, 2021

An Alabama woman was arrested on a charge of endangering a child after her 1-year-old daughter allegedly overdosed on drugs and had to be revived by first responders, police said.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department in Birmingham said Wednesday it got a call from a woman who was screaming that her child had overdosed, apparently the powerful opioid painkiller fentanyl. Video from a police body camera showed an officer entering a house on Monday and finding a child unconscious on the floor as others were gathered inside.

An officer gave the child the drug Narcan, a nasal spray that’s used to revive people suffering from opioid overdoses, the agency said. The child began breathing again and was taken by ambulance to Children’s of Alabama, where the department said she was in stable condition.

Jeanette Lashay Bell, 31, was arrested after telling officers the child had gotten into her drug paraphernalia and put something in her mouth, the statement said. Bell was charged with chemical endangerment of a child and jailed with bond sent at $15,000.

Court records were not available to show whether Bell had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf.