Sleep Aid Slipped Into Teen's Drink

Columbus Dispatch

4/28/06

The phone call woke Teresa Suchecki from an early morning sleep. The news from her son — that somebody had slipped something into his drink before school — hit like a splash of cold water. Joshua, 16, a football and lacrosse player, passed out in the ambulance on the way to Children’s Hospital, where doctors could not awaken him for more than five hours. They placed him on a ventilator, and he spent the night at the hospital. Police are waiting for a toxicology report, said Hilliard police Lt. Charles Scalf, but they think the substance was melatonin, a naturally occurring hormone sold as an over-the-counter sleep aid. Melatonin is a hormone that naturally occurs in the human body and regulates sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation Web site. "Typically, melatonin does not cause a respiratory depression," said Dr. Ulysses Magalang, medical director of the Sleep Disorder Center, at Ohio State University. "Melatonin can lead to drowsiness, confusion and the individual can become lethargic. As far as I know, there have been no reported deaths."

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