HAZLETON -- Two parents overdosed in front of their children in Luzerne County and emergency responders were only able to save one.
We've seen it happen over and over again recently in the national news -- parents overdosing with their children nearby.
That appears to be what happened at a home in Hazleton.
It has to be a traumatizing experience for four children in Hazleton to find their parents unconscious on the floor of their home. Now those children are without a mother, and their father is still fighting for his life.
At around 11 a.m. Thursday, police were called to the home on Emerald Court in Hazleton.
A mother and father were found unconscious on the floor.
"You start thinking all kinds of things," said Hazleton Police Chief Jerry Speziale. "You don't think a drug overdose. You start thinking (it's) a carbon monoxide poisoning and then children are still there. You know, could it be a homicide?"
But quickly emergency responders realized the parents had overdosed on drugs while their four children were in the house.
The oldest is just 7 years old, and the youngest is a newborn.
"It's very sad. I don't know what happening to our society. I really don't ," said a neighbor.
What happened is sad but unfortunately, it's been heard before recently.
Just this week near Pittsburgh, a couple overdosed and died in their home while their four children were inside.
A photo of a couple in Ohio went viral last month, showing two parents who overdosed in the front seat of their car while their toddler was strapped in the back.
Now that the unfortunate trend has hit in Hazleton, police implore any parents who are struggling with addiction to get help.
Police say while a mother is dead from the overdose in this home, had the children gotten their hands on the drugs, it could've been worse.
"Imagine a young child or an infant that touches that, and gets it into their system. Now we have an infant that has overdosed or a child that has lost their life."
The children were taken to the hospital to be checked out.
Police say they are physically OK and in the custody of children and youth workers.
Their father is still in critical condition. No names have been released, just that both parents are in their 20s.