Imagine going down to pick up a dollar off the ground…
And then almost dying.
Sounds impossible, right? Wrong, because this exact situation happened to a Kentucky woman, who was simply stopping at a McDonald’s in Bellevue, Tennessee, with her family, as they were traveling to a conference in Dallas, Texas…. or at least that’s what she says happened.
According to her Facebook post from yesterday, Renee Parsons noticed a dollar bill lying on the ground.
She picked it up, thinking nothing of it. After using the restroom, she went back to the car and teased with her husband, Justin, and their two kids, about how lucky she was to find the dollar bill.
Justin then began to tell her she has to be careful about picking up money off the ground, because sometimes they’ll be laced with drug paraphernalia, like fentanyl.
Ironically enough, as he was giving her the lecture, she began to feel a weird sensation going her body, until she lost all feeling:
“My body went completely numb, I could barely talk and could barely breathe.”
She was fighting passing out. She explained the weird feeling to WKRN News 2:
“It’s almost like a burning sensation, if you will, that starts here at your shoulders, and then it just goes down because it’s almost like it’s numbing your entire body.”
Justin also weighed in on the scary scene:
“She hadn’t said anything for awhile, then she said, ‘Justin, I am sorry. I love you.’ Then she just quit talking.
She looked like she was dying. She certainly was unconscious and very pale.”
She also allegedly touched her husbands arm with the same hand she used to pick up the dollar bill, and he claims his lips started to go numb and he had a rash on his arm.
Justin then drove her as fast as he could to St. Thomas Ascension Hospital, where she survived what the hospital called an “accidental overdose” after four hours.
He believes that the dollar was laced with fentanyl.
However, a number of professionals have combated this theory of a fentanyl overdose.
A Metro Nashville police officer who was called to the ER said she didn’t overdose on the drug, since she didn’t require Narcan, and the tests ran on her didn’t show any drugs in her system.
According to the New York Post, a department spokesperson added that they didn’t find any drug residue on the bill she had touched, and disposed of it.
Dr. Rebecca Donald, a fentanyl expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said Parsons’ symptoms didn’t align with the symptoms of a fentanyl overdose.
Donald said:
“It is much more likely for her to have a reaction if she had inadvertently rubbed her nose and exposed the drug to some of the blood vessels in her nose or licked her fingers or rubbed her eyes.”
Nevertheless, Parsons stands by her story, and she wants her story to warn others from picking up bills off the ground, because they might just be laced with drugs.
She shared her full account of the story on Facebook:
“This happened on Sunday, July 10th, 2022 at 4:30 PM… Do NOT pick up ANYTHING off the ground.
I would not typically share a personal story like this on FB, but I am still in disbelief that it happened to me. Driving through Nashville, TN we needed to make a quick stop to use the bathroom.
We stopped at McDonald’s and while I stand with my 3 month old baby, and wait for my husband so I could go to the bathroom, I see a dollar bill on the ground. Thinking absolutely nothing of it – I picked it up. Holding it in my hand I look around and contemplate giving it to the little girl I saw.
Right then my husband comes out of the bathroom and I throw the dollar in my pocket, hand him the baby, run to the bathroom. I wash my hands and I don’t dry them all the way. I go out to meet them and start to walk to the car a minute or so later. Meanwhile, I did grab the dollar out of my pocket, held it and then put it in my car door. As I did that I told my husband how lucky I was to find a random dollar.
Then I grabbed a wipe to wipe off my hands bc I remembered him telling me not to pick up money off the ground as people have been putting it in fentanyl. As he began to somewhat lecture me, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
All of a sudden I felt it start in my shoulders and the feeling was quickly going down my body and it would not stop. I said, “Justin, please help me. I’m not kidding I feel really funny.”
I grab his arm not thinking and then my body went completely numb, I could barely talk and I could barely breath. I was fighting to stay awake as Justin was screaming at me to stay awake and trying to talk to 911 and find the closest Fire Station or Hospital. I passed out before we arrived at the hospital, but thankfully they worked almost as quickly as my husband did to get me there.
It took a few hours and some meds, but I eventually started feeling somewhat normal again. The police officer that came to take our report told us it was one of two things; either the dollar bill was accidentally dropped and it had been used to cut and or store the drugs or it was purposely left with drugs on it.
Either way, this is absolutely real and sad. The mixture of my wet hands and the alcohol from the wipes, mixed with my bodies reaction to that drug could of cost me my life.
God has other plans for me and thankfully I’m able to reflect upon and laugh at just how BLESSED I am to have my husband, who drove like my life depended upon it; 98mph in a 35, running every red light and crossing over curbs, because if it wasn’t for his love and determination and Gods plan’s, I wouldn’t be here.
The morale, I don’t care if it’s a $20 bill or a $100 bill do not touch it!”
