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Ohio City Sees 48 Overdoses in 48 Hours
Sept. 30--Columbus' assistant health commissioner was working late Wednesday, editing a physician notice about the deadly strain of heroin flowing through the city, when she heard a man cry for help.
Nancie Bechtel ran outside and found the man, who had driven a woman to the Columbus Public Health parking lot. She was slumped over in the car, unconscious and purple.
"A security guard ... laid her on the pavement in the pouring rain," said Becthel, a registered nurse who administered CPR and naloxone, a narcotic overdose treatment, until paramedics arrived.
In the process, the woman's heart stopped three times.
"All I could think was 'I hope someday this woman gets the help she needs.' "
Minutes earlier, the woman had shot up at a nearby gas station, according to the friend who found her and drove her to the health department.
It's a story that's becoming all too familiar to health officials, law enforcement and first responders in central Ohio.
Between 8 a.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday, 27 people overdosed in the city, prompting police and health officials to issue a public warning Tuesday night and host a news conference Wednesday.
A second wave of 21 people, including the person Bechtel and health department employees saved, were treated between 8 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday, according to Columbus Division of Fire.
Columbus fire battalion Chief Steve Martin said in each case, police officers and paramedics administered naloxone, also called by the brand name Narcan, to revive the victims.
Typically, Martin said, emergency responders treat eight or nine drug overdoses each day. "This is a big red flag," he said.
Columbus police continue to investigate the city's sudden surge of overdoses, according to spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner. It's believed the heroin causing the spike was mixed with another opiate, but the potentially lethal substance hasn't yet been identified. Its source also remains unknown.
Officials from Columbus and Franklin County's health departments recently formed a rapid-response team of 10 agencies to streamline central Ohio's approach to battling the heroin epidemic. Members include emergency responders, hospital representatives, the Franklin County Coroner's Office and the county's Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board.
They're urging heroin users to seek help for their addiction and to be cautious if they must continue to use the drug, said Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Teresa Long. She suggested using smaller doses, not using alone and keeping naloxone close by.
Across the country, emergency responders have faced criticism for not arresting users and expending resources on overdose patients, including purchasing naloxone. But addiction is a complicated, chronic, relapsing brain disease that requires treatment, and reviving someone gives them a second chance at recovery, Long said.
"Our core mission is protecting health and saving lives," Long said. "If we don't save lives, we can't move people into treatment."
Of the city's initial 27 reported overdoses this week, nine were concentrated in the Linden area. Two other people were found dead over overdoses during that time -- a man on the South Side and another near Minerva Park -- but officials say they don't know yet if those cases are connected to the same batch of heroin.
The more recent 21 cases mostly were scattered throughout the city. No deaths were reported, according to Franklin County Coroner's Office spokeswoman Tia Moretti.
Drug overdoses claimed a record 3,050 lives in Ohio last year. More than one-third of them were from fentanyl, a potent opiate that often is mixed with heroin.
In August, health officials and emergency responders in Cincinnati reported an unprecedented 174 drug overdoses during a six-day stretch, including at least three deaths, according to the Associated Press. That deadly batch of heroin that caused the spike was likely mixed with carfentanil, a drug used to sedate elephants. It is 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
Carfentanil was also blamed for a series of July overdoses in central Ohio, including one death. Rayshon L. Alexander, 36, of the North Side, was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on a count of murder and other charges for allegedly selling the deadly drug.
Those who need treatment should call 614-276-2273 or visit www.columbus.gov/opiatecrisis/.
Copyright 2016 - The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
