A Kentucky woman claimed she overdosed on fentanyl after picking up a dollar bill laced with the narcotic at a fast food restaurant near Nashville, Tennessee, on Sunday afternoon.
The incident began when Renee Parsons and her husband Justin Parsons had stopped by a McDonald’s restaurant alongside Highway 70 near Old Hickory Boulevard in Bellevue, Kentucky, WTVF-TV reported.
“As I was walking inside, there was a dollar on the floor just hanging out, so I picked it up, not thinking anything of it,” Renee said, according to WSMV-TV.
Ten minutes after picking up the bill, Renee said her body went numb, and she couldn’t speak or breathe.
Hell Naw: Renee Parsons picked up a dollar bill off the ground at the McDonald’s on Highway 70 and soon passed out. The dollar she picked up was fentanyl laced and she almost died. Be careful in Nashville picking up strange money. It be the last thing you ever touch! pic.twitter.com/wambYV5YOj
— Kenny Smoov (@kennysmoov) July 12, 2022
“I couldn’t even breathe. It’s almost like a burning sensation, if you will, that starts here at your shoulders, and then it just goes down because it’s almost like it’s numbing your entire body,” Renee told WKRN-TV.
“She hadn’t said anything for a while, then said, ‘Justin, I am sorry. I love you.’ Then she just quit talking,” Justin said, according to WSMV-TV.
“It just continued to get worse and escalate, and I grabbed my husband’s arm and said, ‘Please help me. It won’t stop,’” Renee recollected, according to WTVF-TV.
Shortly after the incident, Justin drove Renee to the nearest hospital — St. Thomas Ascension Hospital — where she was treated for an accidental fentanyl overdose.
Do you believe Parsons’ account of the incident?
Despite Renee insisting that she suffered from “some kind of exposure,” experts disagree.
One Metro Nashville police officer said that Renee did not suffer exposure to fentanyl since there was no need for doctors to use Narcan to revive her, the New York Post reported.
No traces of drugs were in her system, according to preliminary tests, the outlet reported.
A representative for the police department said that while authorities intend to dispose of the bill, they found no traces or residue of fentanyl on it.
“I think it is really unlikely the substance this lady got into her system is fentanyl based on the symptoms she had,” Vanderbilt University Medical Center fentanyl expert Dr. Rebecca Donald said, according to WSMV-TV.
“It is much more likely for her to have a reaction if she had inadvertently rubbed her nose and exposed that drug to some of the blood vessels in her nose or licked her fingers or rubbed her eyes,” Donald said.
However, Renee insists that she suffered from fentanyl exposure. “What I do know is how I felt, what happened. It can’t be made up,” Renee said.
Her husband, Justin, concurred. “I worked in law enforcement for 10 or 12 years and I observed a couple of incidents like this, and it was very similar,” Justin said, according to WTVF-TV.
Earlier last month, the Giles County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning urging residents not to pick up bills lying around on the ground due to the risk of fentanyl poisoning.
The sheriff’s office said at the time that there were two instances where bills were found laced with fentanyl in the area.
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