Born Addicted
People|May 22,2017

Kyrie Hickey was barely 3 days old when the tremors began.

Alexandra Rockey Fleming and Johnny Dood
Born Addicted

Then came the abdominal pain and muscle cramps—all the telltale signs of opioid withdrawal. “I felt very guilty and ashamed,” says his mother, Rachael Kinder, 27, a recovering heroin addict who gave birth to Kyrie last December while participating in a methadone treatment program. “I hated to see him suffering because of me, but I couldn’t go off the methadone throughout my pregnancy because it can cause miscarriages— so that’s how we got here.”

As opioid addiction rates skyrocket across the country—91 Americans die every day from overdoses, according to the most recent government statistics—so has the number of infants born addicted. Exposed to heroin, prescription painkillers or other opioid drugs in the womb, the babies suffer all the symptoms of withdrawal when they enter the world, a condition known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). “They have a lot of physical issues, sensory issues, stomach pain and cramping, problems with feeding, tremors,” says Rebecca Crowder, executive director of Lily’s Place, a revolutionary medical facility in Huntington, W. Va., that specializes in treating infants like Kyrie. “They can’t handle light or touch, and they can’t stand sound. They go through withdrawal just as you would imagine any adult would, but for their little body, it’s very difficult.”

In parts of the country where adult addiction rates are highest, NAS has reached crisis proportions. And no place has been harder hit than West Virginia, where some 5.2 percent of newborns in the state last year were born addicted to opioids. “It affects everything and every family,” says Dr. Mitzi Payne, a pediatric neurologist at Lily’s Place. “Everyone knows someone who has died of an overdose. We all talk about it. You see it daily.”

This story is from the May 22,2017 edition of People.

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This story is from the May 22,2017 edition of People.

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