A 10-month-old baby almost died after accidentally eating fentanyl on a playground

• A 10-month-old baby almost died after eating fentanyl found in a park.
• The paramedics saved the baby by using Narcan, an overdose treatment.
• The fentanyl crisis "needs that kind of COVID-like attention," the baby's father said.

An accidental fentanyl encounter lead to a near-death overdose of a 10-month-old baby, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday.

The baby was playing at a public park in the Marina district of San Francisco with his twin brother and nanny. He had been playing in the grass and putting leaves in his mouth, his dad told the outlet, citing the nanny.

Suddenly, the baby showed signs of troubled breathing, prompting the nanny to call the boy's father. When the boy's skin turned blue, the nanny called 911 and began to give him CPR. The father and the paramedics showed up at the park, but the boy had stopped moving.

Paramedics were able to treat the baby with Narcan, an overdose treatment. He began breathing normally almost immediately. A California Pacific Medical Center - Sutter Health summary said the baby experienced an "accidental fentanyl overdose, initial encounter" followed by "respiratory arrest," according to The Chronicle.

"I'm frankly ignorant to the fentanyl problem," Ivan Matkovic, the baby's father, said in a phone interview with The Chronicle Wednesday. "I'm just a dad that something bad happened to. I just wanted to let people know that along with coyotes and RSV and COVID, this is another thing to add to your checklist of things that you're looking out for, because we weren't."

The fentanyl was likely in powder form, Matkovic told the outlet, citing the police. The family's nanny later said she hadn't noticed any pills, needles, or foil in the grass where the boy was playing, and police said a search revealed no drug paraphernalia, per The Chronicle. Matkovic said he has no reason to believe the nanny was the source of the drug.

"Really if it wasn't for her and her fast reactions, we might not be with our son today," Matkovic said of the nanny, per The Chronicle. 

He added that he hopes stories like his and countless others can raise awareness of the growing presence — and danger — of the drug. 

"It's not just dealers and people you don't know who are impacted by this, it's tipping over into the broader populace, and it feels like it needs that kind of COVID-like attention, and it doesn't seem like it's getting that," he said.

Authorities have claimed to have seized large loads of fentanyl, a synthetic drug that caused more than 100,000 deaths in US in 2021, Insider previously reported. Emergency rooms don't always screen for fentanyl, meaning more people may have died from overdoses of fentanyl than what is actually known.

"Something like this may never happen again," Matkovic added. "It could be just a freak thing, but it's a crisis in general and these kinds of incidents are going to happen unless something changes."

SFPD and Matkovic did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.