Woman who gave birth while overdosing in Burger King now fighting for custody of child
Updated: 3:45 AM PST Nov 30, 2018
Chelsea Robinson
Digital Media Manager
An Ohio woman who gave birth in a fast food bathroom while high on heroin is now in recovery and hoping to get her baby back.The shocking August incident made headlines around the country: A young woman, overdosing on heroin, giving birth while sitting on a toilet in a Chillicothe Burger King.Elizabeth Sanders told WSYX that she was so high she wasn't even aware she had given birth. She was eight months pregnant when she and her boyfriend snorted Xanax and heroin that day. "I kind of remember that I had an urge to go to the bathroom and then that was it," Sanders said. Police body camera videos recorded the moment Sanders was found, and the shock of first repsonders when they realized there was a baby in the toilet and he was alive. "It was the Xanax and heroin I was taking, just snorting them both together and that's the big effect of the Xanax, you don't remember," Sanders said. "I remember being at the hospital and not being pregnant anymore and not knowing what happened; that's what's really scary."Now 122 days drug-free, Sanders calls that day the moment she hit rock bottom. She's now working to get custody of the baby boy born in the bathroom, along with her two other children."I was trying to escape reality and, of course, not to have to face myself, you know, have that shame, that guilt, and have to answer to anything that I was doing," Sanders said.She recalls trying to get help when she was pregnant but not being able to do so."The place I went to detox I got turned away because I had a positive pregnancy test, and in Chillicothe there aren't any resources unless you want to be in an outpatient program," said Sanders.Along with baby Elias, Sanders has an 8-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son. She is trying to get her degree and wants to counsel other women struggling with addiction. "Nobody should feel like there's no way to bounce back because if I can do it anybody can definitely do it," she said.She's going to family drug court to regain custody of her children."Giving Elias the opportunity to have a sober mom, his whole life. I haven't ever been able to do that," said Sanders. "If I don't keep my recovery first, I'm not going to have my kids anyway. You have to make that your top priority."Sanders says that despite how he was born, Elias is perfectly healthy."I hate that it happened, I hate how everything happened," said Sanders."But, I truly don't know if it wouldn't have happened if I would be clean or alive right now."
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio —
An Ohio woman who gave birth in a fast food bathroom while high on heroin is now in recovery and hoping to get her baby back.
The shocking August incident made headlines around the country: A young woman, overdosing on heroin, giving birth while sitting on a toilet in a Chillicothe Burger King.
Elizabeth Sanders told WSYX that she was so high she wasn't even aware she had given birth. She was eight months pregnant when she and her boyfriend snorted Xanax and heroin that day.
"I kind of remember that I had an urge to go to the bathroom and then that was it," Sanders said.
Police body camera videos recorded the moment Sanders was found, and the shock of first repsonders when they realized there was a baby in the toilet and he was alive.
"It was the Xanax and heroin I was taking, just snorting them both together and that's the big effect of the Xanax, you don't remember," Sanders said. "I remember being at the hospital and not being pregnant anymore and not knowing what happened; that's what's really scary."
Now 122 days drug-free, Sanders calls that day the moment she hit rock bottom. She's now working to get custody of the baby boy born in the bathroom, along with her two other children.
"I was trying to escape reality and, of course, not to have to face myself, you know, have that shame, that guilt, and have to answer to anything that I was doing," Sanders said.
She recalls trying to get help when she was pregnant but not being able to do so.
"The place I went to detox I got turned away because I had a positive pregnancy test, and in Chillicothe there aren't any resources unless you want to be in an outpatient program," said Sanders.
Along with baby Elias, Sanders has an 8-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son. She is trying to get her degree and wants to counsel other women struggling with addiction.
"Nobody should feel like there's no way to bounce back because if I can do it anybody can definitely do it," she said.
She's going to family drug court to regain custody of her children.
"Giving Elias the opportunity to have a sober mom, his whole life. I haven't ever been able to do that," said Sanders. "If I don't keep my recovery first, I'm not going to have my kids anyway. You have to make that your top priority."
Sanders says that despite how he was born, Elias is perfectly healthy.
"I hate that it happened, I hate how everything happened," said Sanders."But, I truly don't know if it wouldn't have happened if I would be clean or alive right now."