3-Year-Old Girl on Life Support After Ingesting Prescription Narcotic: NYPD

The 3-year-old girl found lying in her own vomit inside her Bronx home Monday is on life support after she likely ingested a prescription narcotic she found in the house, police say. 

The child's mother found her facedown in vomit, with blue lips, at their Mott Haven home early Monday. The girl was taken to the hospital in "extremely critical" condition, with bleeding to the eye and loss of oxygen to the brain.

"We believe that she's in that state right now because of an opiate she ingested somewhere in the house," NYPD Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said Wednesday. 

Police found "many bottles" of prescription opiates in the home, Boyce said. 

Police sources initially said doctors believed there had been some kind of rectal trauma to the girl, but Boyce said Wednesday that was not the case and that doctors at Lincoln Hospital had discounted the implication.  

Francisco Perez, who described himself as the child's stepfather, told News 4 on Tuesday the little girl was fine Sunday night.

"I cooked her favorite meal — broccoli, shells and meat — and she went to sleep perfectly fine," Perez said. 

Perez said the little girl's mother woke up in the middle of the night to give the couple's newborn son a bottle and noticed vomit. Perez said the woman then saw her young daughter was purple. At that point, police were called.  

Twelve people live in the Bronx home. Police said they spoke with the family, but they have not released any more details. 

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