Published October 12, 2007

ANGLETON — Two 16-year-old girls have been detained at the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention Center after one of them overdosed on a popular cold medicine.

The girl was at the Juvenile Probation Department’s residential facility Monday when she took 16 Coricidin pills that had been brought into the facility by the other teen, officials said. Juvenile Probation personnel took her by county vehicle to Angleton Danbury Medical Center, where she was treated and since has been released, said her mother, Jennifer Swallow.

“She was hallucinating when I went to the hospital,” Swallow said.

Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Diana Coates said the girl reported being tired to one of her teachers but did not ask for any medical assistance. The teacher made the girl report to the on-staff nurse and the girl was taken to the hospital 27 minutes later, Coates said.

“We didn’t know what was wrong with the little girl,” Coates said. “She never reported to anyone that she was sick.”

The girl received the pills from another residential inmate who brought them after being out on a medical furlough, Coates said.

“She hid them on herself,” Coates said, declining to give specifics because it is still under investigation.

Both girls were moved from the residential facility to the detention facility because they violated their probation. Both were in the residential facility for non-violent offenses, Coates said.

Swallow said she is upset about the probation department’s decision to take her daughter by county vehicle rather than calling an ambulance.

“They’re not trained medical professionals,” she said. “What would they have done if she would have went into cardiac arrest?”

Coates said the decision to use a county vehicle rather than calling an ambulance was because of the proximity of the juvenile detention center to the Angleton hospital.

“We knew by the time we called an ambulance we could have had her there already,” Coates said. “We didn’t know what was wrong with her until we got there.”

The girl who is accused of bringing the pills into the facility could face an additional charge for allegedly bringing them on the site, Coates said.

WHAT IS CORICIDIN?

A cold medicine containing acetaminophen, a pain reliever and fever reducer; and chlorpheniramine, an antihistamine.

Possible serious side effects

• an allergic reaction

• liver damage

• blood problems

• low blood sugar

Source: drugs.com

http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=f5b28cf2c6d02676