Dad Whose Baby Needed Narcan After Being Stuck With Needle Heads To Court Wednesday

MANAYUNK, PHILADELPHIA – The man whose baby had to be dosed with Narcan after being stuck with a hypodermic needle in Manayunk in July will appear in court this week, according to court records.

Steven Richard Welsh, 35, will appear for his preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, court records show.

Welsh was arrested July 6 after his daughter rolled onto a hypodermic needle while in bed on July 5, requiring responders to administer her Narcan, an opioid overdose-reversing drug, according to police.

Welsh now faces charges of aggravated assault; endangering the welfare of a child with a parent or guardian committing the offense; simple assault with the victim under 12 years old and defendant 18 years or older; and recklessly endangering another person.

Welsh was released after posting 10 percent of $10,000 bail July 7, court records show.

Philadelphia Police said officers and medics were called to the 200 block of Green Lane Wednesday, July 5 at about 6:30 p.m. for a report of a child being stuck with a needle.

On scene, police and medics found a 9-month-old girl, Welsh's daughter, unresponsive and administered a dose of Narcan, police said.

Medics took the child to Chestnut Hill Hospital and treated her for an accidental overdose, police said.

Police said the child is in stable condition at the hospital.

Police could not say if this was the youngest Narcan administration they have seen.

More than 2,000 opioid overdoses in Pennsylvania have been reversed by naloxone since November of 2014, Gov. Tom Wolf said back in December.

Wolf said that there were more than 3,500 drug overdoses in Pennsylvania in 2015. Opioid overdoses have been on the increase everywhere in recent months and years.

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently announced overdose deaths were up 37 percent in Pennsylvania in 2016.

There were 4,642 drug-related overdose deaths — approximately 13 people a day — in Pennsylvania in 2016, said Gary Tuggle, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Philadelphia Field Division. That's a 37 percent increase from 2015 and establishes a death rate for 36.5 per 100,000 people.

Back in May, an 11-year-old girl was treated for an overdose with Narcan in the Pittsburgh area.

A paramedic who spoke to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette told the outlet the 11 year old was the youngest overdose victim she had encountered in her 24-year career as a paramedic, save from toddlers who accidentally ingested a drug.

According to Pennsylvania Department of Health Statistics, 14 Pennsylvanians from birth to age 14 died from drug-induced deaths between 2011 and 2015.

Image via Philadelphia Police