It was the night of Friday last week that two children were taken to the emergency room in Trondheim. The children had symptoms of fever, visual disturbances, jaw movements and were pale. – There was also occasional lethargy and hyperactivity, says Jan Niklas Kjendlie, head of investigations in Trøndelag police district. At the hospital, examinations were taken of the children who are three and five years old. There they found traces of cocaine in the urine of one of the children. The doctors then contacted the police. – They said that they had had a five-year-old child with symptoms of taking narcotics, says Kjendlie. It was the newspaper Nidaros that first mentioned the case. Cohabiting couple are charged The doctors concluded that a small but safe amount of the substance cocaine was found, says Kjendlie. Samples have also been taken from the three-year-old, but the police are awaiting the results of the tests. It is therefore too early to conclude that the three-year-old has ingested cocaine. The police have conducted several witness interviews, including from employees at the hospital. A cohabiting couple has been charged in the case. They are charged with possession of drugs, bodily harm and complicity in bodily harm. The couple is father to the five-year-old and mother to the three-year-old. The cohabiting couple have been arrested and questioned. Denies criminal guilt The mother of the three-year-old denies any criminal guilt. Father partially denies criminal guilt. He denies physical abuse of the children, but acknowledges the use and possession of drugs. – They pretend to be outsiders that the children must have ingested some form of narcotic, says Kjendlie. news has been in contact with Tore Angen, who is defending the mother of the three-year-old. He confirms that she denies any wrongdoing. The house of the cohabiting couple has also been searched, and the police have found what they believe may be narcotics. They are now awaiting test results in the case. Had to be picked up from the nursery. The children should be well, and will be looked after by carers whom the child welfare authorities think is appropriate, according to the head of the investigation. – What do we know about what happened before they ended up in emergency room? – We know little about that. They were at home, were delivered to the nursery, but had to be picked up from the nursery because the nursery assessed their general condition as impaired. Kjendlie points out that there need not be any connection that the two children became ill at the same time. The police are now working on several hypotheses. The children may have ingested the substance at home, outdoors, or have received the substance from strangers or someone in a close relationship. It is not likely that the child has ingested the substance in the nursery, says Kjendlie. Poison Information: Can be very dangerous Jartrud Wigen Skjerdal is a senior advisor at Poison Information. She says Poison Information has limited experience with the consumption of cocaine by children. Skjerdal makes a general statement: – Cocaine is a central stimulant which can probably produce many of the same symptoms in children as in adults. But it is not certain that the different symptoms are equally common, she says. It is very rare for small children to ingest cocaine, according to Skjerdal. – We have little experience with how they react and what quantities are needed before it is dangerous. Children will tolerate smaller amounts than adults due to body weight. They are also considered to be extra vulnerable to the effects of cocaine, says the senior adviser. – Taking cocaine can be very dangerous for children. – If small children ingest cocaine, they should quickly go to the emergency room or hospital, and be observed until the danger is over, says Skjerdal.
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