A devastated mother has spoken of her heartache as her young son suffered brain damage after allegedly being given a vape laced with fentanyl.
Lynda Amos, from Georgia, says her boy, Zach Corona, will 'never be the same again' after ingesting the deadly drug, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin:
After unknowingly smoking the substance, the 13-year-old suffered a stroke and passed out in his living room, where he was found by his little sister, Katie.
"Zach sometimes tricks his sister and acts like he's asleep, then when she bends down to tickle him, he jumps up and scares her," recalled Lynda.
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"She thought he was playing. She started tickling him and there was no response.
"I thought he was joking around too. [Then] when I picked up his arm, it just fell down. That's when I knew something was wrong.
"The ambulance asked if he'd ingested anything and I said no, there's nothing in the house for him to ingest. I had no idea what was happening.
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"It was terrifying. I was praying to God to let my son live, to bring him back."
Zach was later rushed to hospital, where he flatlined before being eventually being resuscitated and placed on life support.
After cutting off his clothes, doctors discovered the vape pen that had been hidden, as well as cannabis.
Zach was in a coma for over two weeks before he woke up and told the doctors what happened, claiming that a group of 'bullies' he thought were his friends made him smoke it.
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Lynda says her son, who is now seeing a counsellor, will never be the same again as the the incident caused him to suffer damage to the right side of his brain.
"The boys said they'd beat him up, so he took it out of fear," said the mum. "I was feeling hatred. I was angry about who could have done this to him.
"He told me that he's confused about why the kids have done this to him, because he said they were his friends.
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"They'd been slapping him in the face and calling him names.
"He's seeing a psychiatrist now and a counsellor. The psychiatrist even said to him, 'You know they were never your friends to begin with. Your friends would never do anything to try and hurt you and kill you'.
"[Doctors] told me that he would never be the same boy that he was. He was a straight A student."
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Following the stroke, Zach has had to re-learn how to speak and count.
Lynda is now hopeful that his condition will improve and is raising money to pay for his medical bills.
"It was a miracle that my son came back," she said. "He was dead. My son died.
"Because of the severity of the stroke, it damaged the right side of his brain, and it's permanently damaged. It will never come back.
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"These kids are out there, running around, living their lives the way they want to.
"They don't have anything wrong with them, meanwhile my son's fighting for his life. It isn't right."
UNILAD has contacted Whitfield County Sheriff's Department for comment.
Dominic Smithers