Danielle Wade was discovered in her St. Dennis apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, on Wednesday, August 18. Police determined the 29-year-old mother had died of an overdose several days earlier.
Her mother, Adriane Wade, said she was called by Louisville Metro Police Department investigators to the apartment to identify the body. She said she was told her daughter had been dead several days while her grandson, Dreseaun, lied on top of his mother.
“Decomposing for days with her little baby, her little newborn, laying on top of her,” Adriane Wade told WAVE 3 News. “That baby that was in the apartment while she was decomposing, his hand was raw from trying to eat to survive.”
The grandmother said little Dreseaun survived by gnawing on his fingers and is currently in the hospital recovering from dehydration and injuries sustained from his hand injury. He is expected to make a full recovery.
“It is miraculous because God is involved,” she said, referring to her grandson’s survival. “God is involved. It’s very miraculous. He ate his hand raw. [He was] in there for days without survival techniques.”
The Louisville Metro Police Department confirmed with WAVE 3 News that Danielle Wade died of an overdose.
Her mother told the outlet that just days before she and her children were at her house. “I can’t believe this is how her week ended,” she said. “I can’t believe it happened this quick. Life is so short, and it happened just like that.”
Newsweek has contacted the Louisville Metro Police Department for comment.
In a similar case, a six-month-old baby was found alive in a Michigan motel room where her parents had lied dead for several days.
Jessica Bramer, 26, of Grand Rapids and Christian Reed, 28, of Marne, died from a fentanyl overdose in 2019, detectives from the Michigan State Police later confirmed.
The couple’s baby, Skylah, survived for a week by herself in the room and was found severely dehydrated in May of 2019. She was taken to Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids where she made a full recovery.
Her parents’ bodies were found when a state trooper carried out a welfare check.