Kimber Michelle Brown had more than twice the limit of dextromethorphan, a drug found in cough syrup, and elevated levels of Cetirizine, an ingredient in cold medicines, in her system when she died on Feb. 12 while staying with her grandmother near Durango, The Durango Herald reported.
Brown had been suffering from flu-like symptoms, and La Plata County coroner Dr. Carol Huser told the Herald it was possible her grandmother gave her too much medicine or the girl took too much on her own.
"In my opinion, the combination of these drugs — which were the ingredients of the over-the-counter medications with which Kimber was being treated — caused her death," Huser wrote in the autopsy, according to the newspaper.
Huser called death was an accident.
The little girl had complained of leg pain and muscle cramping — common symptoms of drug toxicity — shortly before she died.
The district attorney's office was reviewing the incident to determine whether the grandmother, Linda Sheets, 59, would be charged.
"It is a terrible tragedy," District Attorney Todd Risberg said. "I don't see any evidence of criminal conduct, but we want to look at all the reports, and there are still some things outstanding."
Huser called the girl's death "a terrible situation," but hoped it would change people's perceptions about over-the-counter medications.
"People do not understand medication you buy off the supermarket shelf can be harmful," she told the Herald. "Common drugs like aspirin, Tylenol and Benadryl will kill you if you take too much of them."
A terrible tragedy. I am a pharmacist and get asked daily for recommendations for OTC meds. Sometimes I feel like patients really just want me to pick a box and sell it to them, and when I do recommend against taking something they don't listen. I know it is frustrating to feel sick, and to care for a sick child. But OTC meds are real drugs, and especially in children they can cause more harm than good. So sad something like this happened.
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