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By Hakimuddin Radhanpurwala
The first thing you can imagine is a trembling mother, curled up on a stained couch, pitching silence in a dark room imbued with remorse and regret. Her hands catch the pill bottle—a habitual interaction—and one by one, promises, relief, and euphoria fulfill the woman’s unsustained desires.
But inside her womb, a heartbeat flutters—too young, too innocent, too naive, and too unfamiliar with pain. And each pill the mother swallows echoes into that growing flutter, rewriting the young, the innocent, and the naive’s life before it even begins. So when the child is born, it arrives not with tears, but bearing the compliments of addiction: the weight of trembling limbs, a malformed brain, and a battle of withdrawal. The first thing it learns is to hurt.
This, alongside many others, is the case in Liam’s story. In an interview conducted on the Youtube channel Special Books by Special Kids, the detrimental effects of opioids on children is captured in the brave story of 10-year-old Liam—the baby born with his mother’s addiction.
Interviewer: “If you were to share the story of your life, what would you say?”
Liam: “Normally I started off as a baby, but then my parents decided to have drugs in my system … they forgot they had a baby and literally took drugs and made my brain misformed.”
The victimized baby turned miracle child, spending 22 days in withdrawal at a critical care unit under the Asante Foundation, still suffers from the overwhelming effects of opioids—diagnosed with autism, depression, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Yet, Liam’s story is not an isolated one. Across the country live infants in pediatric units, born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), welcomed into withdrawal before they’ve taken their first breath.
Beyond infancy, the crisis continues…
A heartbreaking 2023 case reported by The New York Times, captures a daycare in the Bronx turned to a nightmare when officials identified the death of a 1-year old and the hospitalization of 3 other children, blaming the peculiar “exposure of opioids” on the “vulnerable” small bodies of the children.
Unfortunately, this insidious threat also lives outside of accidental ingestion, with kids hiding behind the veil of emotional neglect and trauma in opioid infested households, kids entering foster care as a result, and kids growing up with unchecked mental health struggles. However, progress is still being made, but ending the opioid crisis requires help from all of us.
What connects all the pieces is the common thread of vulnerability in play. Children are the opioid epidemic’s forgotten victims and are subject to consequences from decisions they never made. The pang of confusion, stigma, and dread, trades places with spaces once left for joy, innocence, and mirth. To protect our youth, it is imperative to make conscious decisions that will outlast the threats we face today, shifting the outlook of our country to focus on building equitable futures for its children.
In a report by the American College of Surgeons, it is evident that hospitals too, are reevaluating the use of opioids in pediatric care, seeking safer alternatives for children. This shift, along with preventive measures being implemented nationwide, reflects the need to eradicate the prevalence of opioids for the betterment of society—because children are simply too young to hurt.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
