Aug. 10—A 1-year-old girl nearly died of an overdose after ingesting a loose fentanyl pill inside of a hotel room.
Isha Garcia, 29, is charged with one count of child abuse without great bodily harm or death in the child’s overdose. Garcia was arrested on Wednesday and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Garcia does not currently have an attorney. The Children, Youth and Families Department confirmed that two of Garcia’s children are “safe and receiving the appropriate care.”
On Aug. 5, officers were dispatched to the Days Inn by Wyndham on Candelaria around 1:49 p.m. after Albuquerque Fire Rescue called police and said they believed a baby was overdosing, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
Officers spoke to a housekeeper of the hotel, who said she heard Garcia begging someone to bring Narcan to the hotel room. Garcia and her two children were living in the hotel room at the time, according to the complaint.
The housekeeper said she regularly dealt with drug use at the hotel and carried Narcan with her while she worked, the complaint said. The woman yelled at Garcia to call 911 before she administered Narcan to the child and began chest compressions.
“I dropped a pill,” Garcia told the housekeeper after the woman asked what had happened.
First responders arrived to find the child had regained consciousness. Albuquerque Fire Rescue took the child to the University of New Mexico Hospital.
“He (the doctor) believed she had suffered an opioid exposure,” the criminal complaint stated. Garcia told officers her daughter had “found a pill on the floor.” Later, she told police she did not know what happened.
A CYFD investigator and UNMH placed a 72-hour hold on the child, and Garcia was taken to an Albuquerque Police Department station for questioning. The department would not answer additional questions, citing an active investigation.
According to Garcia, she had been in an abusive relationship with a man, which made her book a hotel room on July 30, the complaint said. Garcia admitted to police that she used methamphetamines on various occasions and said she knew one of her friends who had watched the children had smoked fentanyl in the room with them.
The day her 1-year-old child nearly overdosed, Garcia said her mother had picked her up to get a dose of methadone — a medication that can help treat narcotic addictions. After going to the clinic, Garcia said she had a friend bring some food to the hotel room, the criminal complaint said.
“Isha (Garcia) stated (he) was not there long, but is known to be a fentanyl user and suspects he could have dropped something in her room, but she did not actively see him drop anything,” the complaint said.
Officers executed a search warrant of the hotel room and discovered a blue pill, a broken glass pipe, used and unused foil in a trash can and an empty methadone bottle. Garcia admitted the glass pipe was hers from when she had smoked meth, but insisted the foil was not hers, the criminal complaint stated.
“Garcia stated if she saw fentanyl on the bed she would have discarded it, but I found this hard to believe since she did not properly discard her broken meth pipe, of which (the children) could have gotten a hold of,” an officer wrote in the complaint.