10-Month-Old Baby ODs on Fentanyl at San Francisco Park

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the son of Ivan and Kerina Matkovic -- an adorable boy named Senna -- was at Moscone Park on Tuesday with his nanny when he started to lose consciousness after he had been crawling in the grass and putting leaves in his mouth as he usually would.

"So, I shake him and I'm like, 'Something's wrong,'" the nanny, Wendy Marroqui, told NBC Bay Area. "I saw his face and he was like dizzy. I thought he's not breathing."

She started CPR compressions and called 9-1-1, as the boy's father rushed to them and found paramedics already working on his son when he arrived. They are said to have recognized the symptoms of a drug overdose after it was determined there was nothing blocking his airway and used Narcan on the child.

"All you know is your kid is not breathing, right? And you see them helping him breathe," Ivan recalled to NBC. "Those first responders just saved my son's life. We're just so lucky that we got the guy we got. We came out of it with a positive story, and we can tell other people to be aware that this is a risk."

The boy was taken to the hospital, where the fentanyl exposure was said to have been confirmed. He's since been released and was seen playing with his twin brother in NBC's interview.

SF Chronicle was shown by Matkovic a copy of his son’s hospital record, which listed the child’s diagnosis as “accidental fentanyl overdose” which was followed by “respiratory arrest.” The publication noted that the medical summary listed the boy as having completed a urine fentanyl screening and other lab tests to confirm. The Chronicle said they were able to verify that the record they had been shown was consistent with the hospital’s after-visit summaries and letterhead, however the hospital would not release the child’s records due to privacy.

"It's not just dealers and people you don’t know who are impacted by this, it's tipping over into the broader populace," the concerned father told the Chronicle.

"I just wanted to let people know that along with coyotes and RSV and COVID, this is another thing to add to your checklist of things that you're looking out for [as a parent], because we weren't," he said.

"On 11/29/22 at approximately 10:16 p.m., San Francisco Police officers from Northern Station responded to a local hospital for a report of male infant that had undergone a medical emergency," the department said in a statement. "Officers met with the witness who was with the child at Moscone Recreational Park at approximately 2:30 p.m., when the medical emergency occurred. The San Francisco Fire Department responded to the scene and transported the child to the hospital for a life-threatening emergency. The cause of the medical emergency is still under investigation."

The fire department said they responded "for a pediatric patient in cardiac arrest" and "arrived on scene in 2 minutes, provided life-saving measures and revived the patient." Neither department issued statements referencing fentanyl.

City officials said no drug paraphernalia was found at the scene. Matkovic said authorities told him his child may have been exposed to the drug in powder form.

The father praised his children's nanny, saying, "Really if it wasn't for her and her fast reactions, we might not be with our son today."