MILWAUKEE COUNTY — Milwaukee County is seeing an increase in the number of children dying from fentanyl poisoning. It’s something seen nationwide, as a Scripps News investigation highlights hundreds of young children dying from fentanyl poisoning.
Just last year, 17-month-old Alieonni Lane died after ingesting fentanyl on Oct. 2. Her parents, Alize Comyne and Charvonte Lane, are being charged with child neglect, causing death.
According to the criminal complaint, Comyne told police Alieonni had cold symptoms and she had been giving her Children’s Tylenol. Comyne says she put Alieonni to bed and she was acting normally. Charvonte Lane told investigators, Alieonni got out of bed and went into the living room where he was watching TV. Lane later told investigators, Alieonni was lying face down on a pallet in the home. He says her body was limp and tried to splash water on her face but she did not respond.
Lane and Comyne drove Alieonnie to Children’s Wisconsin. The complaint says the medical team performed lifesaving measures for 15 minutes but was unsuccessful.
Alieonni Lane was declared dead at 1:43 a.m.
An autopsy and toxicology report showed Alieonni had fentanyl in her system. Enough, one medical expert says, that it would kill a full-grown adult. Test results showed she had 7.2 mg/L of fentanyl in her system. An investigator indicated the therapeutic level of fentanyl in an adult is between 1.00 mg/L and 2.00 mg/L, roughly 3.5 to 7 times the levels Alieonni had in her system.
It's stories like this that are on the rise in Milwaukee County. According to Medical Examiner records, zero children under 18 years old died from fentanyl exposure in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, that increased to one, when a 12-year-old died from acute mixed drug intoxication of fentanyl and morphine. It happened again in 2020 when a 15-year-old died from a similar mix of drugs; fentanyl, fluorofentanyl, and diphenhydramine, according to medical examiner records.
Those numbers tripled in 2021. Three one-year-olds dead from fentanyl poisoning. Then, in 2022, another increase. Five kids killed due to fentanyl.
In total, 10 children have died from fentanyl poisoning since 2017, averaging 6.5 years old.
To date in 2023, no children have died from fentanyl exposure. It’s been 347 days since Alieonni Lane died due to fentanyl poisoning. It’s the longest streak for fentanyl deaths since 2019-2020 when the county went 396 days between fentanyl poisonings in kids under 18.
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