His limbs shivering and face contorted in pain, Grayson battles the throws of withdrawal from a drug addiction.
But Grayson is no ordinary drug addict. He is a 48-hour-old baby going through detox at East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville.
Grayson is not alone. He is among 23 newborns out of 58 in the hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit currently being weened off serious opiate dependencies, including OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone.
They are the innocent victims of a growing prescription-drug epidemic that is sweeping America.
Withdrawal: His limbs shaking and face contorted in pain, Grayson battles the throws of withdrawal from a drug addiction
Nurses rush through corridors that echo with babies' screams to tend to infants around the clock in a bid to give them a fighting chance in life.
'I know people probably think I exaggerate when I say they have this very fearful look in their eyes, well they do,' Carla Saunders, the NICU's head nurse, told ABC News.
She has set up a programme at the hospital to deal with the rising tide of addicted mothers who pass their vice onto their babies.
She says when she began her career a 'withdrawal baby' would come along only 'once in a while'. but now she says they come in every day.
Dependents: Grayson is among 23 newborns out of 58 at East Tennessee Children's Hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit currently being weened off serious opiate dependencies, including OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone
Innocent: Grayson is no ordinary drug addict. He is a 48-hour-old baby going through detox at East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville
Weening: Grayson is being weened off his dependency with regular doses of morphine to get him through the symptoms
'We got six this weekend, all at one time, within almost 48 hours,' she says.
Ashton, Grayson's mother, is only 19 years old and was still in high school when she first tried Roxicodone, a prescription painkiller, at a party. She said painkillers were easy to find for those who wanted them.
She said is was 'crazy' how many youngsters in schools are 'strung out' on painkillers, adding that is is 'all they talk about'.
Her addiction cost her a place on her college basketball team and would blow entire paychecks she earned from waitressing to feed the habit.
She is well aware of the 'cold chills' and 'crawling skin' that accompany drug withdrawal having tried to go cold turkey herself and says it is deeply upsetting watching her son go through the same process.
'They come in every day': Carla Saunders, the NICU's head nurse, has set up a programme at the hospital to deal with the rising tide of addicted mothers who pass their vice onto their babies
Mother to son: Ashton, Grayson's mother, is only 19 years old and was still in high school when she first tried Roxicodone, a prescription painkiller, at a party
Guilt: Ashton is well aware of the 'cold chills' and 'crawling skin' that accompany drug withdrawl having tried to go cold turkey herself and says it is deeply upsetting watching her son go through the same process
She was using methodone while pregnant with Grayson but doctors advised her not to come off the drug for fear it could have potentially lethal effects on her unborn baby.
Social services say they will try and keep Ashton and Grayson together as long as she continues treatment to come off her addiction.
'It's just hard,' his mother said. 'I mean, you don't plan on having him. None of it was planned... I wanted better for him. I wanted to be the mom that I didn't have. I didn't want him to be like I was.'
In April it was revealed Vicodin, one of the most popular painkillers, is being taken by record numbers of Americans as experts say it now kills more people than crack.
Grayson's mother Ashton said it is 'crazy' how many youngsters in schools are 'strung out' on painkillers, adding that is is 'all they talk about'
Fighting chance: Nurses rush through corridors that echo with babies' screams to tend to infants around the clock in a bid to give them a fighting chance in life
Shocking: Chief nurse Carla Saunders says when she began her career a 'withdrawal baby' would come along only 'once in a while'. But now she says they come in every day
Use of the drug has increased by 19 million prescriptions over the last five years with 131 million doses issued over the last 12 months.
Dr Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control said more people die from overdoses of painkillers than the number of people who die in car crashes and the combined total of crack in the 1980s and black tar heroin in the 1970s.
The U.S. accounts for 4.6 per cent of the entire world's population but consumes a whopping 80 per cent of the globe's painkillers.
The top selling opiate is hydrocodone which is in Vicodin and America makes up 99 per cent of the market.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172480/The-hospital-HALF-newborn-babies-intensive-care-addicted-drugs.html#ixzz20QZNxpWO
