Four lives may have been saved the day Lauren Hinton rushed her 5-month-old son to Children’s Hospital of Orange County in January 2024.
Hinton, 31, said she noticed her infant periodically seemed to be gagging on his saliva in previous weeks. One medical professional had passed it off as acid reflux, but Hinton noticed it was getting worse.
On the day she hurried to that southern California emergency department, the issue had become so severe she worried her baby might die.
“I just remember being super frantic, like, ‘I’m getting him to the hospital!’” she said. “It just got extremely concerning when we would feed him a bottle, and he wouldn’t (spit up),” she said. Maybe an hour later, “it would be a ton of saliva coming up to where he’d be choking.”
A drug test at the hospital confirmed the baby had fentanyl in his system.
In a police report, one officer who saw the baby at the hospital said the child, “did not appear like a healthy infant. Instead, his movements were slow, as if he were weak.”
“He could have overdosed and died,” said Hinton.
“(This test) saved his life. It saved his life. It saved my life. It saved everybody’s life involved. Everybody,” she said, explaining that she also believed the test saved the children’s father and their son’s twin.
A history with fentanyl
Hinton now works as a Substance Use Disorder Registered Counselor according to the California Association of DUI Treatment Programs, but in early 2024, she was deep in the throes of fentanyl addiction.
She and her partner, Alexander Santiago — who says he now relies on addiction support programs to stay sober — told Scripps News they had struggled with drugs for many years and relapsed in the months after the birth of their twin sons.
“I was at a point of just unmanageability and carelessness. It was just super out of control at that point,” said Hinton.
“The power of addiction, it’s crazy,” said Santiago, 35, “Like nothing else matters.”
Despite being “intoxicated beyond belief,” Hinton said she knew something was gravely wrong with her child.
“That was just the (maternal) instinct,” she said.
So, she took her baby to the hospital.
Tyler’s Law
Most hospitals in California are required by law to include a urine drug screening for fentanyl “if a person is treated at the hospital and the hospital conducts a urine drug screening to assist in diagnosing the patient’s condition.”
The legislation, which took effect in 2023, was named after Tyler Shamash, a young man who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2018 after a hospital drug test during a previous non-fatal overdose did not specifically screen for fentanyl and did not reveal that the deadly substance was in his system.
The test on the second twin
“(That test) saved our lives, honestly,” said Santiago. “I don’t think (fentanyl) probably would have ever been detected if they didn’t test for that.”
The positive hospital test on Santiago's and Hinton's baby triggered authorities to check on the infant’s twin brother who was at home, in Garden Grove, with Santiago.
Garden Grove Officer Ryan Richmond and Detective Sindy Orozco said they prepared for the worst as they drove to the family’s home.
“I was prepared that if we showed up and the baby was not fine to be able to hopefully perform life-saving measures and get that baby out of the house,” said Richmond, who said he planned to use Narcan or naloxone — the opioid reversing antidote — if the baby was unresponsive.
“To have a kid that’s testing positive for (fentanyl) is really scary, and we just want to make sure that we do everything we can to protect those children,” said Orozco.
When they arrived, they found an alert baby, being cradled by his father.
“I didn’t see any objective symptoms or anything like that,” said Richmond. “I did feel like there’s a chance that he might have something in his system...He was acting a little lethargic. Nothing obviously that raised any hairs on the back of my neck.”
Orozco said she did not see obvious signs of fentanyl poisoning. “That’s the thing. You sometimes can’t tell that these babies or children are affected by it unless they get tested.”
The officers convinced Santiago to hand over the baby, which he did willingly, so he could have a free hand to sign some police paperwork. Then, they took Santiago into custody on child abuse and endangerment charges.
Hinton was arrested on the same charges.
“Everything was just such a numb feeling, like a shock,” said Santiago.
First responders transported the baby to the hospital where he also tested positive for fentanyl.
The twins were placed in foster care while Hinton and Santiago went to jail and participated in rehabilitative support programs.
“I thank that detective for charging me and ...that day, coming into the house. Like, I thank them for doing that because if they didn’t do that that day something tragic would have happened,” Santiago said. “And because of that, it lit a fire under me to want to never witness or experience that again.”
The parents pleaded guilty last year to the charges against them and spent several months in jail.
“It was necessary for me to do the time that I did,” said Hinton. “The only concern I had when I was finally coherent was like, hopefully I’ll get the chance to be a mother to my kids.”
Hinton, who said she has other children who have been removed from her care in the past, said this close call changed the trajectory of her life.
“Had none of that happened, I wouldn’t be where I am right now,” she told Scripps News. She said she wants other people who struggle with substance abuse to know there is hope for recovery.
“The road was long. The things I had to accomplish were not easy,” she said. “What was different this time was the hope factor, was wanting to be a different person than I was the day before, and everything just fell in line after that, but I had to ask for help first.”
“This is life or death,” she said. “You gotta be your own voice of reason. Your own advocate to your recovery, and the best thing out of the entire situation was eventually someone heard me.... There is help out there. There is no reason why you have to go out there and do this alone, and that if you don’t do something soon, it’s going to be fatal.”
Other states
A Scripps News analysis of state legislatures found at least 14 states have considered bills related to fentanyl testing at hospitals with at least six states — including Virginia, Louisiana, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and California — enacting legislation.
“That’s horrifying to think that there are small children in our communities ingesting fentanyl,” said Del. Irene Shin, a Democrat, and the sponsor of Virginia’s legislation – called Malcolm’s Law.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the bill into law this past March.
“You can’t treat something you don’t know is there, and we’ve seen so many instances of that — not just for small children and toddlers — but even for adults,” Shin said.
Malcolm’s Law was named in honor of Malcolm Kent, a teen who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2023 after being sent home from an emergency room with instructions to drink water and rest despite never being tested for fentanyl.
“The legislation was actually a pretty common-sense step, and it garnered bipartisan support,” said Shin. She called the legislation a “first step” toward “figuring out how we can better combat what’s happening in our communities.”
Shin said her research showed the cost could ultimately be less than a dollar per test depending on the total number of tests that are ordered and administered.
In Louisiana, a legislative measure to test minors for fentanyl took effect in 2024.
Sen. Stewart Cathey Jr., a Republican, said he was inspired to propose the bill when he learned his friend had lost an adult friend to a fentanyl overdose.
“I think fentanyl is an issue nationwide, but we have certainly seen quite a few particularly young children who have overdosed unintentionally from fentanyl,” he said. “Anything that we can do to protect those children is a step in the right direction, and hopefully, legislation like this helps make children safer.”
In 2022, 2-year-old Mitchell Robinson, died in Baton Rouge following a series of trips to the hospital for overdose symptoms.
According to a state review of his death, “toxicology screens used by the hospital did not test for synthetic opioids leading to initial ‘negative’ results.” Later, more tests confirmed fentanyl in his system.
Cathey’s law requires hospitals to document positive fentanyl tests among children and to report the results to the state department of health.
Since the law took effect in August 2024, data obtained by Scripps News shows at least 22 children who were two or younger had the drug in their system when they were tested for fentanyl at the hospital.
A bill enacted in Maryland affects hospital patients of any age. Data shows more than 33,000 people tested positive for fentanyl at hospitals in the state since the law took effect in October 2023. The number accounts for approximately 10.5 percent of people who were tested.
Connecticut’s law, passed in 2024, is designed to improve opioid monitoring in the state. It requires hospitals to complete toxicology testing on consenting patients who survive overdoses and to screen for numerous substances including opioids like fentanyl. The results are reported to the state for “better understanding [of] the types of substances causing nonfatal overdoses.”
Several other states have proposed laws, but many of those bills have not advanced.
Michigan state Rep. Stephanie A. Young, a Democrat, said she plans to reintroduce a testing-related bill this session after first proposing a bill in 2023.
“This isn’t partisan legislation,” Young said. “This is human legislation. This is legislation that will impact the health and wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable in our communities.”
For Rep. Marcia Morey, a Democrat who proposed a bill in the state of North Carolina in 2023, the push for a law like this is not yet over, but it may have to be in a future session.
“I would like to carry it forward,” she told Scripps News. “This is about the health and safety of people — of families — and it’s such an easy, low-cost thing to do. It’s one way to tackle the problem.”
Other states that have considered legislation in the past or are currently considering proposals include Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
On Wednesday, Florida’s state legislature passed Gage’s Law, a bill named after Gage Austin Taylor, a 29-year-old who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022. The bill is headed to the Governor’s desk.
In March, a bipartisan group of Congressmembers reintroduced a federal bill proposal named after Shamash, that would encourage the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide hospitals with fentanyl testing guidance.
Industry Groups React
The American Hospital Association told Scripps News it defers to medical specialty societies and their recommendations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Emergency Physicians.
A spokesperson told Scripps News that AHA supports evidence-based guidelines for treatment of patients.
“As far as a federal law mandating any such testing, any considerations on whether we’d support something like that in the future would be driven by clinical evidence,” said Colleen Kincaid, vice president of media relations and strategy for AHA, told Scripps News in 2023.
Kincaid said the AHA’s position then still stands today.
“It’s important to appreciate that testing every child with any symptom related to overdose (such as lethargy) without any other indicator of exposure to fentanyl for an overdose could consume and divert critical health care resources,” Kincaid said.
According to Steven Arnoff, a spokesperson for ACEP, the group supports federal legislation that would “help prevent fentanyl overdoses by having (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) study how frequently hospitals test for fentanyl ...and then issue guidance to hospitals on implementing fentanyl testing in the (Emergency Department).”
"Emergency physicians are on the frontlines of the opioid and substance use disorder crisis, and every day we witness the impact of overdose on our patients and their families," said Alison J. Haddock, president ACEP. “Illicit fentanyl has exacerbated the overdose crisis, and it is vital to ensure that emergency physicians are equipped with the necessary tools and resources to best treat and educate our patients as we help them on their path to recovery.”
The American Academy of Emergency Medicine is monitoring the situation, according to Jonathan Jones, the immediate past president of AAEM.
“We strongly support physicians being able to order the tests they want to order. We oppose any restrictions hospitals or systems may place on those physicians,” Jones said. "However, we also oppose mandating testing for any condition. Given many small rural hospitals’ dire financial situations, we are hesitant to endorse any unfunded mandates for these hospitals.”
