‘Heartbreaking’ video shows crying toddler trying to wake overdosed mother in a store

It’s difficult to watch: The sobbing 2-year-old girl seems to say “wake up” as she desperately prods an adult passed out on the ground, over and over again.

She appears to be wearing pink footed pajamas. She walks around her mom’s body, which is in the toy aisle of a Family Dollar in Massachusetts, before sitting beside her head, touching her face and crying.

“Oh my god,” a man who identifies himself as the woman’s friend says when he sees her collapsed on the ground. An apparent store worker informs him that they’ve called an ambulance.

Police in Lawrence, Massachusetts released the video. The woman had overdosed on heroin, police said, and was later revived by paramedics with narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdoses.

“It’s heartbreaking. This is definitely evidence that shows what addiction can do to someone and what happens when they use these types of narcotics,” Lawrence Police Chief James Fitzpatrick told NBC. He said they found residue of either heroin or fentanyl in the woman’s bag.

The woman is facing charges of child endangerment. The toddler was taken into custody by Child Protective Services.

“You see someone in the throes of addiction like that, what they’re willing to sacrifice,” Fitzpatrick said. “I don't know if they have that thought process about what they're sacrificing to feed their addiction.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2016 at 10:12 AM with the headline "‘Heartbreaking’ video shows crying toddler trying to wake overdosed mother in a store."