Editor’s Note: The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33), Councilmember Pierina Sanchez (C.D. 14), Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, and childcare advocates joined Otoniel Feliz Samboy and Zoila Dominici, the parents of the late Nicholas Feliz Dominici, 1, for a press conference on Fordham Road and Grand Concourse on Thursday, Dec. 14, to announce the introduction of a series of bills in the New York State Legislature and the New York City Council to protect children from opioid exposure in childcare facilities.

 

In the wake of the tragic death of one-year-old Nicholas Feliz-Dominici at El Niño Divino childcare facility in Kingsbridge Heights on Sept. 15, Rivera and Sanchez said they had worked in tandem to coordinate an appropriate, public health focused response to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring again and to ensure that communities and children were safe. 

 

Rivera’s bill (S.7815) will provide education and training for providers on overdose prevention, ensure thorough training for inspectors on how to identify illicit drugs, and will empower parents, who, they said, are by far their children’s strongest advocates, by ensuring they are informed about avenues for inquiries and complaints to the State’s Office of Children and Family Services, as well as their rights to inspect childcare facilities.  

 

“The fentanyl exposure incident at a daycare in my district was a horrifying tragedy,” said Rivera. “The heart-wrenching death of one-year-old Nicholas Dominici and the terror that families experienced due to the negligence and callousness of the facility’s providers cannot happen again.”

Sanchez will introduce a legislative package in the forthcoming legislative session. The first bill of the package dovetails with Rivera’s bill by requiring the NYC Department of Mental Health and Hygiene to specifically advertise  to health inspectors and childcare providers training on opioid antagonists. The second bill within the proposed legislative package will explore a pilot program to support working families in need of childcare. The third and final bill will be a resolution calling on the State Legislature to pass and the governor to sign the proposed changes in Rivera’s bill.

 

“Nicholas Feliz Dominici should have been safe at this daycare facility,” said Sanchez. “The Feliz Dominici family did everything right, from working with trusted community institutions, to vetting licensed daycare providers. Yet, government protocols failed to catch possible warnings at this facility, and the ongoing scourge of the illegal opioid drug trade robbed us of a beautiful young life. As a mother of a child that even looks like little Nicholas, my heart remains broken from this devastating tragedy.”  

 

As reported, the parents of Nicholas were joined on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023 by members of the clergy, friends, neighbors, residents, and various elected officials for a candlelit remembrance service at Our Lady of Angels church on Webb Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, one month after the infant’s passing.

In the aftermath of Nicholas’ death, during various different press conferences, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan and others went to great lengths to highlight how a seemingly small amount of fentanyl (“less than the size of a fingernail” the mayor said) could have lethal consequences.

 

Earlier this year, NYC Administration for Children Services (ACS) launched a specific ad campaign, highlighting the risk to kids of potentially confusing colorfully wrapped cannabis for candy. Norwood News had previously reported on the confiscation of a weed truck by police in Fordham Manor, along with others across the City, some of which had allegedly being selling illegal products under the guise of candy or ice cream.

 

In light of the referenced repeat warnings by City officials about the dangers of fentanyl, Norwood News spoke to Gibson after the service on Oct. 15 and asked her about various media reports which appear to downplay the seriousness of the fentanyl crisis, presenting it essentially as a myth and as scaremongering, particularly around Halloween. Gibson disagreed that the matter was overblown. Read our story which includes her lengthy response here.

We previously reported on an overdose prevention training course that was held by the nonprofit, Keep It Simple & Safe (KISS), in St. James Park in Kingsbridge Heights during the summer of 2022, which aimed to train members of the public on how to use Narcan kits.

 

According to health experts, a Narcan kit containing Naloxone is a potentially lifesaving measure designed to help reverse the effects of an opioid overdose in minutes. Since most opioid overdoses occur in the home and are most often witnessed, according to manufacturers, having a Narcan rescue kit nearby can make all the difference. “We probably saved the lives of three of those children because of Narcan,” the mayor said of the childcare medical emergency on Sept. 15, during which Nicholas died and three other children were hospitalized but survived.

 

Representatives from KISS joined the September 2023 52nd Precinct Community Council meeting in Kingsbridge Heights as well as a recent Bronx Community Board 7 meeting in order to remind residents of their free training, and of the availability of Narcan kits. A similar training event was held in City Island this year, as reported.

 

As reported, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark was joined by members of law enforcement at her office on Oct. 5, 2023 to announce that Feliz Herrera Garcia, the husband of Grei Mendez, the operator of Divino Niño Daycare Center, Mendez herself, and Carlisto Acevedo Brito, cousin of Herrera Garcia, were charged with murder “under circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life, assault, and other charges for allegedly exposing Nicholas and three other surviving babies to fentanyl which was stored in the daycare. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

As previously reported, they also face additional federal charges related to drug trafficking. As also reported last year, the daycare center had undergone three inspections by city health officials to obtain its license, including one surprise inspection prior to the poisoning incident on Sept. 15, 2023. Federal and local law enforcement later recovered large quantities of what appears to be fentanyl under the floorboards of the daycare center where infants had been sleeping.

 

Mendez and Herrera Garcia were due ot appear in Bronx Criminal Court of March 12 (2024) but the case was adjourned to a later date. We will continue our coverage of the case.

 

Meanwhile, as also reported, in the wake of Nicholas’ tragic death, Feliz Samboy made a public proposal during a press conference at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, to include funding in New York City’s budget to pay family members who don’t wish to leave their kids at a daycare in order to allow them (or grandparents) to care for the young children directly. Norwood News readers later weighed in on this proposal with their thoughts.

 

NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) provides training and regularly updated information on how to obtain and administer naloxone (Narcan). Click here for more information.

 

Fentanyl Patch Safety

Video courtesy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration via YouTube

Read our previous coverage on the Divino Niño Daycare Center tragedy here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

 

Read our previous coverage on subsequent fentanyl drug and arms busts reported in recent weeks here, here, and here.