Chicago overdoses likely due to a mixture of heroin and powerful painkillers are sparking nationwide concern because heroin overdoses similar to the ones in Chicago are on the rise nationwide.
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Chicago police said the drugs were mostly purchased at two locations on the city’s West Side, suggesting a single supplier was to blame. Police officials suspect that an “extremely strong batch of heroin” laced with fentanyl is responsible for the increase in overdoses.
Although medical experts and authorities are scrambling to address the crisis, WGN TV reported that there have been no deaths resulting from the overdoses. “They’re taking double and triple the doses of Narcan in order to bring them out of their stupor”, Hincks tells the Tribune.
Diane Hicks, a registered nurse and emergency room director at Mount Sinai, told the Tribune that a few of the 14 patients at the hospital had collapsed as soon as they injected themselves with the deadly concoction. Fentanyl is actually 30 times more potent than heroin and is usually used for painful surgical procedures. He also did not know what drug caused the overdoses.
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Fire officials have now equipped paramedics and first responders with larger quantities of Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose, Chicago Fire Department Cmdr. Experts in Chicago continue to investigate the scenario to protect public health.
