An inmate of the Trumbull County Jail is in critical condition after a suspected opiate overdose. 

Now the 19-year-old's mother is fighting to try to see her son in the hospital and to find out what happened.

"My son is now at St. Elizabeths and laying there. He might die, I don't know, and I can't even go in and hold his hand," explained Jennifer Stanley of Howland.

During breakfast checks, around 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Tim Kirkland, 19, was found unresponsive in his pod.

Major Dan Mason, the jail administrator, said that medics administered Narcan. Kirkland didn't respond but was still alive and taken to St. Joseph's Hospital.

He eventually was taken to St. Elizabeths where the family said that he was sedated and on a ventilator, unable to talk or open his eyes. The family hasn't been able to see him because of HIPAA.

"I've been freaking out all day. I've been making phone calls to everybody. I never knew that once your kid gets 18, that unless you have signed papers, and who does that, you have no legal rights to ask questions. I can't go in and see him, nothing," Stanley said.

His mother Jennifer Stanley was not notified by the jail either, which Mason said is because Kirkland did not list his mother's phone number as a contact.

Mason said that the sheriff's office is investigating and interviewing witnesses to see if this was criminal or medical in nature. He said that it looked like an overdose but that had not been confirmed.

"A kid that made a stupid mistake. That's why he's in there," she said.

Kirkland faces burglary charges for what his mom says he admitted to committing at a home with three other friends. He has been in jail since last June.

Stanley said that Kirkland would not get more than three years in jail, as part of a plea deal. His sentencing was scheduled for Monday but got pushed back to May 22. 

Stanley talked to him the night before and said that he was in a good mood. She talked to him every day, even a couple times a day.

Even though her son used marijuana in the past, she never suspected he would use opiates.

"He and I had a long talk about heroin and he said, 'Mom I would never.' He said I'm upset that you would even ask me. I truly do not believe that he would ever do something like that."

She plans to apply for legal guardianship Wednesday to try to be able to see him in the hospital.

Meanwhile, the jail does not currently have a body scanner to aid in the search for drugs when inmates come in.

Mason said that they are currently choosing a vendor and hope to have one installed by summer.