Mother arrested after 2-year-old son overdoses in Buckeye motel room

BUCKEYE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — A 30-year-old Buckeye woman was arrested earlier this week after doctors found traces of drugs in her two-year-old son’s system. According to court documents, Larissa Ann McGuire brought her son to Buckeye Abrazo Hospital around 1 a.m. Sunday. Shortly after midnight, she said she woke up and noticed he was having difficulty breathing. She said he had thrown up about six hours earlier and believed he just had too much Powerade.

Doctors had to immediately intubate the child, who was then flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. There, medical staff tested the boy’s urine and found methadone and fentanyl in his system. However, on Wednesday, another urine analysis showed the boy tested positive for methadone and meth, but not fentanyl. According to court documents, the child is still unconscious but no longer intubated.

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Police were called, and McGuire reportedly told officers that she has a methadone prescription for prior drug addiction. According to court paperwork, she said she keeps the bottle inside a pocket in her purse and that she should have known better since her son has previously opened similar bottles with child safety caps. McGuire reportedly told police her son pulled her purse off a dresser and was playing with it about an hour before he started throwing up Saturday evening.

Court documents say McGuire told police she had no idea how the boy would have taken fentanyl but that they had been staying in a Buckeye motel over the past few days with the boy’s father — who she says is also a recovering drug addict. She added on Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., she had left her son alone with his father while she went to work.

Detectives searched the motel room, where they found marijuana next to the child’s cup, foils with burned residue and a pill in the sink. Court paperwork says detectives also found loose marijuana inside one of the dresser drawers. McGuire told police the drugs belonged to the boy’s father.