METHUEN, Mass. — A baby girl who nearly died after being exposed to the drug fentanyl is expected to be released today from a Boston hospital into the care of a family member.

Police responded Saturday to a home at in Methuen, a small city about 30 miles north of Boston, to investigate a report of a 10-month old baby not breathing.

The young girl is the latest victim of a rising opioid epidemic causing overdoses and deaths across the country. In the same Massachusetts city, police have also arrested and charged a man who they say was in possession of 33 pounds of fentanyl, though the cases are not said to be related. 

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Agency for the state of Massachusetts show that in 2016, the number of fentanyl-related deaths continues to increase.

“Among the 693 individuals whose deaths were opioid-related in 2016 where a toxicology screen was also available, 510 of them (74 percent) had a positive screen result for fentanyl,” a state report says.

The child was taken to Lawrence General Hospital, where she stopped breathing twice and had to be revived by hospital staff. She was later flown by medical helicopter to Tufts Medical Center in Boston. The Department of Children and Families has custody of the child.

In a press conference Monday, police Lt. Michael Pappalardo said the department and state police were investigating the incident. The investigation was focused on trying to discover how the baby came to be exposed to fentanyl, a drug that is frequently mixed with heroin and which police say is responsible for a number of overdose deaths in the area’s opiate crisis.

No arrests have yet been made in the incident, Pappalardo said.

“The opioid epidemic knows no boundaries,” Mayor Stephen Zanni said in a press statement. “We must continue to be vigilant in ensuring that children do not have access to harmful substances and to do everything we can to fight the disease of addiction.”

Golden writes for the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle Tribune.