Family's heartbreak as 'happy and bubbly' girl, 12, dies from 'overdose' after she put grandma's used painkiller patch on her leg



Destiny Spitler, 12, was found lifeless in her bed in Clinton on Saturday morning and investigators called to the scene discovered a fentanyl patch on her thigh

The girl's grandmother, Diane Spitler, uses the medication, which is up to 100 times stronger than morphine and 40 times stronger than heroin, to manage her back pain

Grandmother says the little girl pulled the patch out of the trash

An 'always happy and bubbly' Missouri girl has died after she pulled one of her grandmother's powerful painkiller patches out of the trash and put it on her leg.

Destiny Spitler, 12, was found lifeless in her bed in Clinton on Saturday morning and investigators called to the scene discovered a fentanyl patch on her thigh.



The girl's grandmother, Diana Spitler, uses the medication, which is up to 100 times stronger than morphine and 40 times stronger than heroin, to manage her back pain but instead of flushing the used patch down the toilet, as instructed, she put it in the bin.



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Tragic: Destiny Spitler, 12, was found lifeless in her bed in Clinton, Missouri, on Saturday morning and investigators called to the scene discovered a Fentanyl patch on her thigh

A police report said officers were called to the home on East Lincoln Street, which Destiny shared with her grandmother, her mother Cathleen Perron and her brothers and sisters, on a report of a person not breathing.



When they arrived they performed CPR on young Destiny until an ambulance rushed her to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.



According to NBC, investigators are looking into reports that she had put the patch on her abdomen on Friday night after complaining of a stomach ache.



The devastated grandmother described young Destiny as loving, giving and caring.

'She loved to sing. She sang all the time. But apparently she was a very curious little girl that we didn't realize,' Mrs Spitler told KCTV .

'It was an accident. It was stupid on my part for not getting rid of them,' she added in an interview with NBC.



She said she didn't know what prompted the 12-year-old to pull the patch from the trash and affix it.



'It was a patch that was from last Tuesday. And she put it on,' she said.

University of Kansas Hospital toxicologist Dr. Stephen Thornton told KCTV than sadly such cases are not uncommon.

He said he had seen many incidences where children have been attracted to a patch thinking it's a sticker and then overdosed on the powerful medication, which has been recalled in the past for being too potent even for patients accustomed to using strong narcotics for pain relief.

'Once you use that patch and you take it off, it still has about 50 per cent of the fentanyl that was started with,' Thornton explained, urging people to dispose of their medicines properly.

An autopsy is being conducted and more information will be released when the exam and toxicology tests are completed.

Stomach ache: Investigators are reportedly looking into reports that Destiny, pictured, had put the patch on her abdomen on Friday night after complaining of a stomach ache Dangerous: The girl's grandmother, Diane Spitler, uses the medication, which is 80 times stronger than morphine, to manage her back pain

Her parents, Jay Miller and Cathleen (Spitler) Perron, said the sixth grade student at Clinton Middle School enjoyed singing and dancing.



She was also a member of the Northeast Baptist Church of Clinton, Missouri where she participated in the Girls In Action Youth Group.



'Destiny loved to help people. Her main goal in life was to make others happy,' her family wrote in an obituary on a local funeral services website.

Lt. Sonny Lynch of the Clinton Police Department said the news has shaken the community.

'We all have children of our own and grandchildren of our own and we're a close knit community,' Lynch told NBC.



'Anytime we have a death of a child, no matter where that's at, it impacts you.'

Mrs Spitler made a desperate plea for families to take greater care with such medications.



'Mothers, fathers ... anyone who wears these dang patches, dispose of them, fold them up in tiny little pieces and flush them down the stool so your babies won't be like mine,' the grandmother said.



Scene: The girl was found dead on Saturday morning at her grandmother's house, pictured, in Clinton

Fentanyl is one of the few medicines doctors recommend be flushed because it is so dangerous.



Police are still investigating whether Destiny was killed by the fentanyl itself or whether it reacted to medication she was prescribed. They are awaiting results of an autopsy.

Friends have also created a tribute Facebook page for the youngster, whose former babysitter, Mary Hawkins, described as 'always happy.. very bubbly ,' and a memorial was set up outside her home.



Krisma Dee Hawkins wrote on the Facebook page: 'Beautiful little angel we love you dearly. You are always in my heart.'

Potent: The potent painkiller patch is prescribed for patients who are in severe, chronic pain and have already developed a resistance to narcotic drugs. Anyone else, including Destiny, is likely to die from overdose

Neighbor Gina Candillo told NBC: ' She's going to be missed because you see her every day outside.'

The painkiller patch is prescribed for patients who are in severe, chronic pain and have already developed a resistance to narcotic drugs. Cancer patients are sometimes prescribed the painkiller patch because of the extreme pain often associated with the disease.

The Food and Drugs Administration warns that, for patients who are not opioid-tolerant, the amount of fentanyl in one fentanyl patch of the lowest strength is large enough to cause dangerous side effects such as severe trouble breathing, very slow or shallow breathing or even death.

Police in Canada recently warned against the drug, which was being marketed as a recreational drug for young people on the black market.

In late April, Montreal police raided seven locations, seizing more than 300,000 illegally produced synthetic prescription drugs, including Viagra and Cialis. Some of the seized pills were fentanyl.

Dr. Peter Vamos, the Director-General of the Portage Rehabilitation Center, said the drug could prove exceptionally dangerous to potential users.

'The impacts are very unpredictable, and the unsophisticated users not knowing the impacts of the drugs that they are taking, not knowing the mixture of what's in these pills is going to result, unfortunately, in many tragedies,' Vamos said during an interview with the CBC.

Fentanyl is so strong that even some of the police officers who handled the drug during last month's raids suffered injuries.

'Even though they were wearing masks and gloves, still just by being in contact with the product, they suffered from mild injuries. One of them had to be hospitalized because of a heart condition,' said Inspector Marc Riopel of the Montreal Police on Monday.

