A Brighton family's loss could prompt nationwide changes in the way drug companies package opioid-based pills.

Senator Chuck Schumer is teaming with the family to force change.

"I want to thank Adam and Mary Beth Gillan for hosting us today and more importantly for their courage and bravery and strength," Schumer said.

9-month-old Maisie passed away earlier this year after ingesting a methadone pill. The accidental incident brings the New York senator to her parents’ home in an effort to prevent other infants and children from dying in similar fashion.

"To Mary Beth and I, this is a matter of life and death," said Adam Gillan of Brighton.

"It’s a warning that we have to do more to prevent these things from happening. In the last 20 years, 600 children under 5 have ingested opioid pills and passed away," said Senator Schumer.

Maisie had been crawling on the floor as the family visited a friend. None of the adults noticed her swallow a loose pill.

What happened to her is prompting the senator to call on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a requirement that all types and doses of opioid based drugs be made available in fixed quantity unit of use packaging, sometimes known as blister packages.

"It needs to be required for all opioids. I’m sure there’s a financial cost but it will never outweigh the human cost," said Adam Gillan.

Schumer says the FDA recently was granted new powers to be able to make these changes. It’s called the Support Act – Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Community Act.

"It had a bunch of things in it to deal with the opioid crisis, but one, it gave the FDA the ability to require much safer packaging for opioid based medicines, the kind of legal opioid medicines like the pill that Maisie ingested that are in people’s homes," said Senator Schumer. 

In response, The Food and Drug Administration issued this statement:

“The FDA opened a public docket to solicit feedback on potentially requiring that certain immediate-release opioid analgesics be made available in fixed-quantity, unit-of-use blister packaging…. The agency is currently evaluating the public comments submitted to the docket and gathering additional stakeholder input to determine next steps.”

Schumer and the Gillan’s say, the sooner action is taken, the better.