Mother Of Teen Who Took 'Molly': 'She Does Not Look Like My Daughter Anymore'
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A Colorado teenager overdosed on a drug and now the high school graduate is in for the fight of her life.
Megan Pacheco, 18, was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Aurora with her temperature at 108 degrees after taking the drug known as "molly." She's currently in critical condition and her parents want others to know what happened so it doesn't happen to them.
The drug "molly" is similar to ecstasy. It comes in the form of powder or a pill. Doctors say it can increase heart rate, blood pressure and raise a person's body temperature like it did to Megan Pacheco.
Megan Pacheco from Colorado Springs was spending the night at a friend's house when her father got a call.
"I received a phone call from a parent saying that my daughter … the paramedics were at their house and my daughter had taken something," Megan's father Enrique Pacheco said.
He found out his daughter took molly. It also had traces of opiates, heroin, morphine and other substances.
"Because of the temperature and a myriad of other complications, it's really attacked all of her major organs, and most of those are failing," Enrique Pacheco said. "Other complications are preventing them from recovering."
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, across the country, molly-related emergency room visits for people under 21 increased 128 percent in just six years.
"I thought my daughter … would never do anything like this. I hope that other kids and parents can learn that this is a very fatal drug, and if they saw my daughter right now they would be devastated because she does not look like my daughter anymore," Megan's mother Tina Pacheco said.
Doctors and the Pachecos are urging parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of using the drug.
"Only through my faith do I know she's going to come out of this," Tina Pacheco said.
There will be a vigil for Megan Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Sand Creek High School in Colorado Springs where she just graduated.