Rash of Opioid Overdoses Being Reported Locally
Fayette County officials report an increase in opioidrelated incidents recently. Fayette County EMS Director Josh Vandever said EMS personnel have responded to multiple calls involving powerful drugs such as fentanyl.
Vandever said his crews and area hospitals are seeing more apparent overdoses. He raised concern that the frequency of this issue may be trending upwards.
“We have witnessed and have been informed by an area hospital of several concerning incidents of opioid overdoses here in the county recently, and while it could be coincidental that these events have happened in rapid succession of one another, it is at least worthy of alerting the public to the matter,” he said. “Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid typically used to treat patients with severe acute pain as a result of a traumatic injury or other medical causes. Under the supervision of a medical professional, fentanyl is a safe and very effective medication.”
Fayette County EMS responded to one such call last Friday night and into early Saturday morning, Jan. 10-11, at the Cistern School House, a bar located on FM 2237 in Cistern. Upon arrival, Vandever said medics found two adults exhibiting the signs of an opioid overdose. Medics treated the patients and transported them to Ascension Seton Hospital in Smithville.
“Illicit fentanyl, primarily manufactured in foreign labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico and through our ports, is being distributed across the country and sold on the illegal drug market,” Vandever said. “Fentanyl is being mixed in with other illicit drugs to increase the potency of the drug, sold as powders and nasal sprays, and increasingly pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescription opioids. Because there is no official oversight or quality control, these counterfeit pills often contain lethal doses of fentanyl.”
Vandever said unsuspecting people might think they’re taking a “party drug” like Xanax, but the drug dealer actually sold them a fake Xanax pill containing a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.
Vandever wasn’t sure if that’s what happened in these recent cases, but he called it “a very common story.”
The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office is well aware of the problem.
“The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office takes the presence of narcotics in our community very seriously and is committed to doing everything within our power to remove the substances and the individuals responsible for distributing them from our street,” said Lt. David Beyer of the Sheriff’s Office.
“All of our county’s first responders are more effective when we communicate with one another and this situation is a perfect example of the Sheriff’s office and EMS department working together to ensure the needs of our community are being tended to,” Vandever added.
Vandever urges caution about taking any medication without knowing what it contains.
“The only way to be sure about the contents of a medication you are taking is by purchasing it, legally, from a licensed pharmacy,” Vandever said. “Medications circulating around the street are increasingly exposing unsuspecting citizens to opioids with no way of knowing they contain a lethal dose.”