1 dead as number of overdoses in region grows
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One person has died and as many as three dozen people have been treated by emergency health care providers as a wave of drug overdoses continued Thursday for the second day in a row.
Lycoming County Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr. confirmed that a Philadelphia man in his 30s died of an apparent drug overdose in an apartment in the 700 block of West Edwin Street in the city about 10:30 a.m.
"We don't know for sure the cause of death until the completion of toxicology tests," Kiessling said, adding there was evidence of drug use in the apartment.
The emergency department at UPMC Susquehanna was busy Thursday providing care to people brought there for drug overdoses.
Police have speculated that a bad batch of heroin or a more potent form of the opioid may be the cause for the rash of recent overdoses.
Dr. Michael Gerst, medical director, of the UPMC Susquehanna emergency department, said it would be premature to say if people are taking heroin laced with fentanyl, a potentially lethal combination that can cause users to overdose more quickly. However, Potter County District Attorney Andy J. Watson attributed the overdoses in Potter Tioga and Lycoming counties to fentanyl-laced heroin, the Potter County Leader-Enterprise reported Thursday
Many of the people coming to the ER are showing symptoms of unresponsiveness and an inability to breathe on their own.
Gerst said he's never seen this number of overdoses coming to the ER.
"We are equipped to deal with this," he said.
Of the overdose patients reported by the health system, six have arrived at Soliders & Sailors Memorial Hospital in Wellsboro for emergency care.
Gerst noted that it's clear the drug problem is as much a local problem as it is in communities throughout the U.S.
"This is not a recreational drug," said Williamsport Mayor Gabriel J. Campana Thursday as he communicated with his chief of police and those in the district attorney's office. "This will put you in the morgue."
He said the first priority is to remove "this lethal poison" from the streets. He too noted that the city and region are not alone as the drug problem is rampant throughout the nation.
"We just can't keep up with the calls, just can't keep up," one emergency responder told a reporter at Sunoco A-Plus on Dewey Avenue in Old Lycoming Township where firefighters and paramedics were called after not one, but two people apparently suffered an overdose at about 2:15 p.m.
"What's out there (on the streets) is extremely dangerous," Kiessling, a registered nurse and a 40-year member of the township fire company, said.
What the users may now be injecting and not know it "is likely a combination of substances; it's not just fentanyl, not just heroin," Kiessling said.
"It could be some kind of synthetic opioid. You don't know what you're getting, really," he added.
Kiessling's advice to heroin addicts: "Go get treatment and get off this stuff because it's going to kill you."
He said there were a total of 35 drug overdose deaths in the county last year and 18 thus far this year.
Township Police Chief Joseph Hope said when paramedics arrived at the Sunoco A-Plus, they found "an unresponsive female in the restroom."
That woman, who was revived and taken to the UPMC Susquehanna Williamsport Medical Center, came to the convenience store in a pickup truck with a second woman, a child and a man. The two women and the child entered the store while the man remained in the truck, Hope said. One of the women went into the restroom and collapsed.
"The second woman told us in the store that the child's father was in the back of the truck sleeping, When we came out to the truck, we found the father had also overdosed. Paramedics pulled him out of the vehicle, requested a second medic unit and began treating him," Hope said.
The man also was taken by ambulance to the hospital and later discharged.
Officers recovered drug paraphernalia at the store, but no drugs, Hope said.
Police impounded the truck.
"We don't know what (drugs) the two took. They obviously took something because the man was in respiratory arrest," Hope said.
Hope added, "We don't know if there's a bad batch (of drugs) that's out there or just something super strong."
Project Bald Eagle Executive Director Steven Murphy Shope said signs seem to be pointing to an increase in fentanyl use.
"I'm afraid of this next chapter with fentanyl," he told a small group of people Thursday night attending a Project Bald Eagle training session on the use of naloxone, a drug which revives people who overdose on heroin or other opioids.
Campana called the recent rash of overdoses "very disturbing" as he left the evening session.
He said he hopes to equip the city fire department with naloxone.
Sun-Gazette reporter Mark Maroney contributed to this story.