The heartbroken father of a one-year-old boy who tragically died from a Fentanyl overdose at a daycare in Bronx has spoken out.
The deceased child has been identified as Nicholas Feliz-Dominici. His grieving dad, Otoniel Feliz, was in tears as he told Daily Mail that it had been his son’s first week at the Divino Nino Day Care on Morris Avenue, only a 15 minute walk from their apartment.
“It was his first week,” the 32-year-old father said. “This was his first week.”
The father-of-five moved from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. in 2018 before they moved to the flat near the center in 2019.
Otoniel and his wife were happy that they were close to Divino Nino Day Care.
“We had a good recommendation. We were told it was a great place,” he expressed. “It looked like a nice place.”
But only days later, their son died after ingesting fentanyl.
“Parents don’t have permission to go inside. You see it on the first day to see where your son will be, but after that you don’t have permission to go in,” he said.
“They said they ‘don’t want contamination from the outside to go inside because they keep everything clean,’ that’s what they said,” Otoniel added.
The couple then discovered the heart-wrenching news when the wife went to the daycare to pick their son up.
When she arrived, police and emergency services were blocking the street. She then received devastating news no parent ever wants to hear.
“My wife called me saying our child is going to hospital. We thought he was fine, 10 minutes later, my wife called me back on the way to the hospital and said he died,” Otoniel said.
Three other children were taken to a hospital, with an 8-month-old girl being treated for dehydration.
During a press conference, Mayor Eric Adams said the incident should act as a warning for those keeping opioids in their homes.
“To see the pain they are experiencing is something that all of us New Yorkers are experiencing and all of us that are parents,” he said.
“This crisis is real and it is a real wake-up call for individuals who have opioids or fentanyl in their homes.”
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