‘Quick-thinking’ mom saves 15-month-old after he ingests Valium pill at Toronto park

Police are crediting a Toronto mother for moving quickly to save her 15-month-old boy after he ingested one of multiple Valium pills found on a playground park slide downtown.

Lindsay Lorusso and Andrew Nisker took their children to Bellevue Square Park near Augusta Avenue and Denison Square in Kensington Market for the first time over the lunch hour Sunday.

While Apollo and his mother were at the playground, he grabbed one of two pills found on the slide.

“When he surfaced at the top of the slide, I noticed he had something blue in his mouth,” Lorusso told Global News Monday.

“I grabbed him and I fished out what probably appeared to be half of the pill. The rest was dissolving in his mouth, so I called my husband over and we tried to swish out the rest with his t-shirt.”

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Without knowing what her son ingested, Lorusso said it was “terrifying” for her and her husband. They didn’t wanted to wait, so Lorusso took the second pill from the slide before rushing with her family to nearby Toronto Western Hospital.

“It was this horrifying feeling of potentially being too late,” she said. “It’s probably the instinct of a mother to know something isn’t right, right from the get go.”

Hospital staff closely monitored Apollo for two hours before he was released.

Lorusso said she is thankful she was paying close attention to her son otherwise she may not have known he ingested the prescription medication.

“It’s terrifying to think what would have happened if we just continued shopping after he ingested that — if we didn’t know what happened.”

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Meanwhile, Det. Jessica McInnis said police also found one and a half pills in the park after being alerted to the situation. Officers are asking the public to be cautious in the area.

“We’d like them to be very vigilant and keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary – any pills, anything suspicious, and call 14 Division right away,” she said, adding it doesn’t appear to be an intentional act.

McInnis said police patrol the park on a regular basis in response to complaints about overnight parties.

She said the park is actively used by families during the day and McInnis praised Lorusso for her actions.

“She’s a quick-thinking mother, so thankfully she saved the day.”

With files from Cindy Pom