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Facing epidemic, Cincinnati hospitals test mothers, newborns for drugs

By Mary Wisniewski CINCINNATI (Reuters) – Bubbly and athletic, Heather Padgett, raised in a loving family in the Cincinnati suburbs, would not fit the stereotype of a heroin addict. Until she got clean last August, she was part of what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called a heroin epidemic – a 100 percent rise in heroin addiction among Americans between 2002 and 2013. The sharp rise

Facing epidemic, Cincinnati hospitals test mothers, newborns for drugs

By Mary Wisniewski CINCINNATI (Reuters) – Bubbly and athletic, Heather Padgett, raised in a loving family in the Cincinnati suburbs, would not fit the stereotype of a heroin addict. Until she got clean last August, she was part of what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called a heroin epidemic – a 100 percent rise in heroin addiction among Americans between 2002 and 2013. The sharp rise