Ivan Matkovic, tech boss 10 month old baby son overdoses on fentanyl while playing in San Francisco park with twin brother. The quick thinking actions of the boy’s nanny and arriving paramedics save the boy’s life.
The infant son of a California tech boss was moments away from near certain death, the result of a suspected fentanyl overdose earlier this week, as the child was playing in the fields of a local San Francisco park.
According to Ivan Matkovic, the boy’s father and nanny, Wendy Marroqui, Sena was playing with his ten month old twin brother at George Moscone Park in the Marina District on Tuesday afternoon when he began struggling to breathe and turned blue.
‘I shook him, and I’m like, something’s wrong,’ Marroqui told wral.com. ‘I saw his face and he was dizzy. I thought he’s not breathing.’
She said the baby had been crawling in the grass and putting leaves in his mouth ‘as he normally does,’ before suddenly falling ill, with the nanny calling 911.
After determining there was nothing blocking his airway, paramedics administered a life-saving dose of the anti-opioid medication Narcan — bringing the boy back from the brink of death, according to the boy’s 35 year old tech dad boss.
‘We mightn’t have been with our son today…’
Within seconds, the infant began crying and breathing again.
‘It’s not just dealers and people you don’t know who are impacted by this, it’s tipping over into the broader populace,’ Matkovic told the San Francisco Chronicle following the close call.
‘I just wanted to let people know that along with coyotes and RSV and COVID, this is another thing to add to your checklist of things that you’re looking out for [as a parent], because we weren’t,’ said Matkovic, who founded the tech consulting company Spendgo.
Hospital tests later confirmed the tot had fentanyl in his system, and he was sent home at around midnight Tuesday.
There was no drug paraphernalia such as foil or needles in the area, city parks officials said — though the strong synthetic opioid can be absorbed through skin contact or accidentally inhaled when in powder form.
Matkovic said police told him the boy’s likeliest exposure was powder, which is difficult to detect.
The relieved dad praised his nanny’s quick thinking along with paramedics.
‘Really if it wasn’t for her and her fast reactions, we might not be with our son today,’ he said.
Baby Sena was in good health Wednesday, he said.
