Parents of a Plano teen who died from a fentanyl overdose this February told her story to FOX to raise awareness about the deadly drug.
Sienna Vaughn was a 16-year-old cheerleader at Plano Senior High School. She died on February 19 after taking one pill, which she believed to be a painkiller. However, the pill contained fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug “100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic,” according to the DEA.
The effects of taking too much and overdosing on fentanyl are “stupor, changes in pupillary size, cold and clammy skin, cyanosis, coma, and respiratory failure leading to death,” the DEA explains.
Sienna’s mother, Stephanie, described her as being a typical 16-year-old girl living her life.
Her father, Ryan, said he bonded with her by attending concerts together. “She loved thrifting. She’d go out with her friends all afternoon and thrift and get fast food. Just typical teenage stuff,” he added, according to FOX.
Sienna was at home on the day of her death, spending time with a friend. According to Stephanie, they were hanging out “downstairs,” “eating snacks,” and “goofing off,” as she told FOX.
The two went upstairs, and Stephanie went to check on them. She recalled what happened next to FOX, “I walked up to her room, knocked on the door…she didn’t answer, opened the door, and I found her and her friend laying on the bed. Her friend was making this weird gurgling noise and I saw Sienna and she was just so pale. Her lips were already turning blue…I immediately said, ‘Call 911, call 911.’ I jumped over her friend. I tried to do a couple compressions on the bed, and it wasn’t working, so I picked her up, put her on the floor and I just started doing CPR.”
Sienna’s parents found out later that Sienna had bought the pill because she was told it was Percocet, a pain medication.
According to a report released by the CDC, over 2,200 teens died due to fentanyl from July 2019 to December 2021.
Almost a dozen students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD have overdosed and died from fentanyl from September 2022 to March 2023. In some cases, students have access to these pills while at school.
Ryan told FOX, “We think that there’s a lot of information that’s being collected by the police and the hospitals, and even doctors, you know, school people, that is not really getting rolled out to the community fast enough.”
Sienna’s parents hope her story will raise awareness about fentanyl and encourage parents to openly communicate with their kids about it.