A 58-year-old woman has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after Cook County prosecutors alleged she left a bag of narcotics within reach of a nearly 2-year-old boy who died of an overdose in an East Garfield Park apartment, CWB Chicago reported. The Cook County medical examiner's office found the boy died from a combined overdose of fentanyl, medetomidine, dexmedetomidine and what it described as "probable heroin."
Medetomidine is a powerful sedative approved in the U.S. only for use in animals. Its presence in a drug mix that reached a toddler highlights a growing household danger as veterinary sedatives turn up in the illegal fentanyl supply.
