Police are investigating whether a man who died of an apparent drug overdose in East Garfield Park used narcotics from the unsafe batch after he was found dead in a third-floor apartment Thursday night.
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Paramedics have seen a spike in heroin overdoses on the West Side since Wednesday night and have since armed themselves with more antidote, fire officials said. He also did not know what drug caused the overdoses.
The Chicago Fire Department says at least 20 people on the West Side have overdosed on drugs, in just the past 24 hours. In a two-year period from 2005 to 2007, over 1,000 deaths were reported from fentanyl-laced heroin.
Paramedics have been given extra Narcan to carry with them. Dr. Tarlan Hedayati at Stroger Hospital is alarmed because the standard treatment for heroin overdoses isn’t immediately working.
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“Add fentanyl to heroin, its potency goes through the roof”, Jack Riley, acting deputy administrator for the U.S. DEA told the Washington Post. The agency issued a national alert about the problem in March. According to officials, hospitals and drug stores are not reporting a loss or theft of the painkiller.
