A Kentucky mom, Renne Parson, was hospitalized on Sunday after picking up a suspected fentanyl-laced $1 bill. She complained of numbness minutes after picking up the bill, prompting her husband to rush her to the hospital. The mom recovered from the incident, but authorities and a health expert were skeptical of the couple's claim.
The police said they found no residue on the dollar bill. However, the police did not test it for fentanyl.
McDonald's stop turns into a hospital visit
As per NewsChannel 5, the Parsons from Lexington, Kentucky, made a quick stop at the Bellevue McDonald's at the corner of Highway 70 and Old Hickory Boulevard on Sunday afternoon. Renne recalled holding her three-month-old baby while waiting to use the restroom when she spotted a dollar bill on the ground. Thinking nothing of it, she picked it up.
Once the family got into the car, she began experiencing numbness. She said it started from her shoulder and spread quickly down her body. She noted that the numbness would not stop. Renne remembered grabbing her husband's arm as her body went numb.
She noted that she could barely talk and breathe and struggled to stay awake as her husband screamed for her to stay awake while driving to St. Thomas Ascension Hospital. He said his wife looked unconscious and very pale when they got there.
According to Daily Mail, Justin, the husband, said he felt the side effects after his wife touched him. His lips started to numb, and a rash broke out on his arm.
He said that his symptoms subsided after an hour, while his wife felt somewhat normal within a few hours with the help of medication.
Renne posted the incident on Facebook, which has been shared more than 160,000 times.
Justin thinks his wife had reacted to some drug, such as fentanyl, on the dollar bill. He added that he worked in law enforcement for ten to 12 years, and he observed a couple of incidents similar to what they just experienced.
Last month, the Giles County Sheriff reported two separate incidents of folded dollar bills laced with fentanyl and meth.
Authorities skeptical
However, the Metro Police in the Emergency Room (ER) at the hospital told his supervisors that they did not believe that Renne was exposed to fentanyl because she did not need Narcan to be resuscitated. Preliminary tests at the hospital did not show any drugs in her system. The police also said they did not find any residue in the dollar bill, WSMV reports.
Dr. Rebecca Donald, a fentanyl expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, also had reservations about the couple's story. According to her, skin-to-skin contact with fentanyl is unlikely to expose a person to the drug at harmful levels. She would likely get the reaction if she inadvertently rubbed her nose and exposed that drug to some of the blood vessels in her nose or licked her fingers or rubbed her eyes.
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