Mom Dies After Cleaning Bathroom Where Son Fatally Overdosed — Officials Issue Warning
Theresa Plummer had the heart-wrenching experience of finding her son unresponsive from a drug overdose in the bathroom of their home. Her son, Ronald Plummer, was transported by ambulance to a local Pennsylvania hospital but she had no way of knowing that she too was about to make her own trip to the hospital. The next day Theresa was in the same state that her son was in the day before when she found him lying on that bathroom floor.
While the mom was cleaning up the bathroom of the drug paraphernalia left behind by her son, the 69-year-old woman started to experience shortness of breath. She too was rushed to the local hospital, where she died just one day after finding her son unresponsive. The tragedy in this family from Portage doubled when the son died the day after his mother.
Both are believed to be victims of a drug overdose under totally two different sets of circumstances, according to Fox News. Police believe that Theresa Plumber likely “came into contact with the substance” that her son had overdosed on while she was cleaning the bathroom.
According to WJACTV News, the Cambria County coroner, Jeff Lees, said that he believes Theresa’s death occurred after she “likely absorbed the substance through her skin.” He also said that another way this substance could have caused this woman’s fatality is by her having some kind of reaction to the drug after handling the paraphernalia with the residue of the substance present. Lees said:
“This is a caution for safety for anyone coming into contact with any type of powder substance. You should use extreme caution and notify the proper authorities.”
Tampa News Mother dies of overdose while cleaning up son’s drug paraphernalia, coroner says https://t.co/xxNrtqrHqJ pic.twitter.com/pwmXBwKcDu
— Tampa NewsChannel (@Tampa_NC) November 16, 2017
Lee also offered up advice that he hopes everyone in the community will heed.
“My strong advice to any family that may have this happen to them is to call law enforcement to have them or EMS services come back and remove the substance or material that may have been left behind.”
While the autopsies on the mother and son were performed, the toxicology reports for both Theresa and Ronald Plummer are pending, according to Lees.
[Featured Image by Leszek Czerwonka/Shutterstock]
