Coroner`s report shows rise in heroin deaths

Jan. 26--CATLETTSBURG -- Nearly all statistics for the Boyd County Coroner's Office are up, according to the annual report given by Coroner Mark Hammond during the most recent Boyd County Fiscal Court meeting.

Hammond ticked off numbers on total calls for everything from overdoses, to cremations to suicides, and compared these statistics to calls made in 2013.

The most compelling comparisons for Hammond came from heroin-related deaths and a rising trend in cremation requests.

Hammond said his office has recorded 15 drug overdoses in 2014, with heroin overdoses up "drastically" in the past two months.

He said during the beginning and middle of 2014, most heroin overdose cases went to paramedics, but near the end of the year his office carried more of the weight.

Hammond reported his office handled six heroin overdose cases in November and December, and has already taken on two more this month.

"The statistics of what I really want to capture aren't there a lot of times in hospitals. With heroin, it's a fast-acting drug, so a lot of times they can use Narcan to wake them up," Hammond said, referring to the emergency drug that helps reverse heroin effects. "They're fine. They live another day. They may overdose 10 or 12 times before we end up getting them."

On a different note, cremation requests rose from around 200 in 2013 to 250 in 2014, a trend Hammond has noticed since he began working in the office.

"When I started in 2008, I signed out about 85 cremations. Now it's over 200 every year," he said.

Hammond did not seem to know why requests have gone up, but this was not the only upward trending statistic he was able to report.

His office received an 18.5 percent increase in the total amount of calls in 2014, which went from 207 in the previous year to 254.

Hammond reported eight suicide calls in 2014, up two from the previous year.

He also said his office fielded five homicides, which is an unusually "high number."

Fridays and Mondays were reported as the days with the highest amount of calls to the coroner's office.

LANA BELLAMY can be reached at lbellamy@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653. For Twitter updates, follow @lanabellamy_DI.

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