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New Haven parents arrested after baby swallows PCP-laced cigarette

NEW HAVEN – On Tuesday, first-responders rushed an unconscious one-and-a-half year old boy to the pediatric emergency department at Yale–New Haven Hospita...

NEW HAVEN - On Tuesday, first-responders rushed an unconscious one-and-a-half year old boy to the pediatric emergency department at Yale–New Haven Hospital.

Police said just before 1 p.m., the child’s parents called 911 to report her baby had swallowed a cigarette laced with PCP at their Brookside/ West Hills apartment. The drug-laced cigarette had been left within the child’s reach.

Police said the parents noticed the baby acting oddly, as if he was high. Soon, the baby was unconscious. The mother smelled PCP on her son’s breath and the phoned for help. When EMTs got there, the boy was breathing on his own and had a pulse.

The baby’s father admitted to investigators that the laced cigarette was his.

Both the 27-year-old mother and 28-year-old father were arrested and charged with risk of injury to a minor. The father was additionally charged with possession of narcotics.

As of Wednesday, the child’s condition has improved to stable. He is now conscious and continues breathing on his own.

“What did impress me was, even though these things don't happen day-to-day, the fact that the mother phoned for help. And, they didn't just say, ‘oh, he's sick.’ They admitted there was PCP on his breath," said New Haven Public Information Officer David B. Hartman. "So, you have a couple of really irresponsible people, who were still responsible enough to own up to the situation.”

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