A Kansas woman is under investigation after feeding her three children French toast laced with the drug PCP. The breakfast sent the mother and her children hospital, authorities say.
Kansas City Police told the media that the woman — who has not been publicly identified — used what she thought was a bottle of vanilla extract to make the French toast. She also told officials she thought that an ex-boyfriend who used to live in the home with the family might have hidden his PCP stash in the bottle, according to Fox 29.
The mother told police that after the family ate breakfast, they all became violently ill with high temperatures and vomiting.
Officials noted that drug users sometimes use vanilla extract bottles to hide their drugs because the bottles are often made of dark brown glass. But Dr. Tama Sawyer, managing director of the KU Hospital Poison Center, said it was a strange mistake to make because the odor of vanilla extract is far different than that of PCP.
“PCP is a powerful drug that affects the brain and subsequently all bodily functions. PCP either causes Euphoria, a feeling of intense happiness or Dysphoria, a profound state of unease,” Fox 29 reported.
Police often have difficulty in subduing adults overdosing on PCP because the drug makes users feel invincible and often makes them extremely violent.
“In severe overdoses, it can actually lead to coma and death, and it tends to shut down body organs,” said Dr. Sawyer added.
“It causes your temperature to go up. Once your temp goes up, destroying organs, the liver, kidneys, lungs. Every organ system depends upon a very narrow body temp. If you get that elevated to over 103, then you are talking deadly,” the Dr. said.
Sawyer also noted that she knows of no other case where children under the age of one have ingested PCP. The youngest children, in this case, are lucky to be alive, Sawyer said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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