More than 96,000 people died of drug overdoses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic – that’s an increase of almost 30 percent in just one year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Most Illinois opioid-overdose deaths occur in homes, hotels, abandoned properties
‘If we really want to save peoples’ lives, we can’t wait until they get to the hospital’
Researchers analyzed 2,833 opioid-involved overdose deaths in Illinois.
More than 75% of people in Illinois who die from an opioid overdose do so before emergency personnel can make it to the overdose scene, a new Northwestern Medicine study found. These deaths occur in peoples’ homes, hotels, public spaces or abandoned properties.
“If we really want to save peoples’ lives, we can’t wait until Emergency Medical Services arrive at the overdose scene,” said corresponding author Joe Feinglass, research professor of medicine and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
click to enlarge The west side garage where a man was found unresponsive in his car In late August, a man was found unresponsive in his car outside the west side location of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, a local overdose prevention and harm reduction group, according to former employee Nikki Carter. After Carter said she believed a responding employee was taking an uncharacteristically long time to treat the man and return to the office, she said she went out to help and saw other responding workers shaking the car and banging on the window. Carter, a former project manager and drug checking technician at the organization, said it was later discovered that the man had been in the car for more than two hours before anyone noticed him.