The parents of a four-year-old boy who overdosed on fentanyl on his birthday have been charged.
Denard Bishop, 39, and Alexis Scarborough, 34, are accused of child endangerment after their son was found gasping for air during a nap at his father’s Golf Manor home on November 25.
He was rushed to the Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center following the incident.
The boy was found with ‘agonal breathing’, according to court documents obtained by Fox19 Now. The potentially deadly condition occurs when a person is not getting enough oxygen.
Denard Bishop and Alexis Scarborough were charged with child endangerment after thei four-year-old son overdosed on fentanyl on his 4th birthday
The incident occurred on November 25 at Bishop’s Golf Manor home where Scarborough (pictured) was visting
His mom was arrested immediately after, while Bishop remained at large for two days. Both were eventually apprehended and taken into custody.
Scarborough pleaded not guilt to child endangerment during a hearing on Wednesday.
A judge rejected a request from her lawyers that she be released on her own recognizance so she could keep her job as a hotel housekeeper.
Her bond was set at $10,000 and she was ordered to have no contact with her children unless she received permission.
Bishop is due to appear in court for the first time on Friday.
‘Fortunately, hopefully, this child will be okay,’ Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition Co-Chair Chief Tom Synan told Fox19 Now.
Lawyers for the mom asked for her to be released on her own recognizance so she could keep her job, but this was denied by a judge who set her bond at $10,000
The boy was rushed to Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center after he was discovered struggling to breathe during a nap
‘Luckily, they got medical attention. It is something that in some cases you can reverse.
‘And hopefully, there’s no further impact and the child and everyone in this incident learns from it and is able to take those safeguards and get the help and the resources they need so that they’re not using drugs anymore.’
According to the Ohio Department of Health’s most recent statistics there were 4,915 unintentional drug overdose deaths in 2022.
Of these, 81 per cent involved fentanyl – often in combination with other drugs.