Rani Jamieson did everything she could to prepare for her first-born.
“Anytime I read an article about something you should-shouldn’t do or they’re not sure, that went on my list of things not to do,” Rani says.
But after a painful episiotomy when giving birth to her son Tariq, Rani was prescribed Tylenol 3 with codeine.
“I was told sort of the cliché, you know, a little bit goes through the breast milk, your baby might be a little drowsy.”
Tariq was born without complications but at 12-days-old something went wrong. He stopped feeding and his colour changed. By the time an ambulance arrived he had stopped breathing. Without warning Tariq died shortly after midnight.
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The Jamiesons had no explanation for how this could have happened until the Coroner’s office released its report. Toxicology tests found fatal levels of morphine in Tariq’s system.
“The level in Tariq’s body was 80 gram per milliliter… if you have levels above 20, you stop breathing,” says Dr. Gideon Koren, one of Canada’s leading paediatricians and toxicologists who is familiar with the case.
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Though she didn’t know it at the time, Rani is an ultra-rapid metabolizer. She has an extra copy of the CYP2D6 gene that converts codeine into morphine, so when she took the drugs her body created lethal levels of morphine. That morphine transferred to her baby through breast milk.
Rani is a genetic exception, but she’s not alone. Depending on ethnicity, some Canadians are more genetically inclined to be ultra-rapid metabolizers and face the same risks.
“You’re just – you’re consumed with a certain sadness that’s always there,” Rani says. “It’s always there.”
16x9s story “Genetic Rx” will have more on the dangers of codeine as well as look at the risks associated with taking anti-depressants.
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