Officer Nearly Dies From Fentanyl Overdose After Ohio Traffic Stop

[Eugene]

Source: KDKA-TV/AP

Officer Nearly Dies From Fentanyl Overdose After Ohio Traffic Stop

May 14, 2017 9:01 PM

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio (KDKA/AP) — Police say an Ohio officer suffered an accidental overdose after a drug arrest when he touched powder on his shirt without realizing it was the powerful opiod fentanyl.

Patrolman Chris Green assisted in searching a vehicle operated by Justin Buckel, where suspected drugs were found scattered about near East Liverpool Friday night.

Green patted the man down, noticing he was covered in a white powdery substance, which police now believe was the opioid fentanyl, 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Then, as officers were standing around and talking, someone told Green he had some powder on his shirt, and he brushed at it with his hand to wipe it off.

“I started talking weird. I slowly felt my body shutting down. I could hear them talking, but I couldn’t respond. I was in total shock. ‘No way I’m overdosing,’ I thought.”

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/05/14/officer-nearly-dies-overdose-ohio-traffic-stop/

[Chemisse]

1. If it is this potent, how do drug dealers even work with it?

Just a little bit on the skin?

[Bradical79]

5. Very carefully

Maybe a bit of luck too. My understanding is that they add a bit of fentanyl with other drugs. Lately, some have been doing this with Carfentenil, a nore power synthetic used to treat huge animals like elephants. This is why there's been such a large number of overdoses lately here in Ohio.

[Chemisse]

6. That makes sense.

This must have been the pure material, not yet added to whatever is chosen to dilute it with.

[forgotmylogin]

17. I think this is the same stuff that killed 11 people in Canada?

Drug dealer didn't know what he had and sold it like cocaine. If it's pure, an amount the size of a salt grain is enough to kill an adult.

My mother wears a fentanyl patch for pain that is 25 mcg/hour. The directions are a giant fold-out map of warnings and precautions in microscopic print. The first warning in bigger type is basically "This is not for people who have not built up a tolerance to opioid painkillers already..."

[cstanleytech]

18. Aye my mother wore the same patches before she died and we handled them carefully.

Of course I wish they would find a better bonding agent for them as sometimes they started to come off almost as soon as I put them on.

[forgotmylogin]

22. I'm pretty careful.

My mom's skin is usually dry, but you have to make sure they don't have lotion on the area you apply to. It's a fairly rigid plastic square like a nicotine patch and I try to get it on the flat part of her shoulderblade and press it down hard with my whole hand. (the backside, of course, does not have medicine) to make it stick completely. She is not active and has had one last through a shower.

I used to wear gloves while applying her patch, but I've gotten pretty good at it. I'm more worried about making sure the old patch is wrapped up when I throw it in the trash.

[cstanleytech]

27. Ya we used to use the square ones but they switched her to these really long rectangular

ones around 2011/2012 which she used until she died in 2014.

[Bradical79]

2. My local news reported it was actually Carfentanyl

It's a similiar synthetic opioid 100x more powerful. Scary stuff.

Edit: was on TV, not sure if accurate.

[malaise]

3. Wow

Damn!

[Lee-Lee]

4. It's crazy powerful and dangerous

To the point where drug dealers are actually handing out Naloxone to their customers hoping to keep them alive.

Hope the officer has a speedy recovery and can be back on the job soon. All to often cases like this end up in permanent disability and the end of a career.

[WePurrsevere]

7. Holy wow! Just from 'touching' it?

I take it that this is somewhat new? With my children grown I'm a bit out of date and haven't heard of this or the synthetic mentioned in a reply before.

If it's so easy to get badly impacted by it and it's so very dangerous and even deadly how is this even semi popular? Is it like playing Russian Roulette for 'fun' (aka STUPID) or being spread by some 'dealers' TRYING to kill people?

[forgotmylogin]

19. My mom uses it because she hit the limit of oxycodone she could handle for spinal stenosis.

Hers is a patch that is worn for 72 hours and dispenses Fentanyl at 25mcg/hour. The warnings are crazy and the main danger is apparently people getting used patches out of the trash, or having an old one unknowingly cling to their clothes or skin if they don't dispose of it carefully. The first and hugest warning is "If you are not already tolerant to opioid painkillers, this is not for you..."

[WePurrsevere]

25. So it's a legit RX drug too...

Interesting. I'm going to be doing more research on this. Thank you.

[Soxfan58]

8. He could have rolled around naked

In a big pile of pot, and nothing would happen. Just saying!

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. +1000000!

[Orrex]

9. How was the suspect "covered with" it, but not affected by it?

[IronLionZion]

11. on clothes instead of skin?

[Orrex]

12. I guess, but...

If he was careless enough to get it all over his clothes, it's hard to believe that he was sufficiently careful to keep from inhaling it and/or getting it on his skin.

[IronLionZion]

15. Might have built up a tolerance, or wore protective gloves/mask

I don't know, just speculating. It's nasty stuff. I bet some dealers have died from exposure

[Orrex]

16. Probably correct. Yikes! (nt)

[rurallib]

13. you would think some would have gotten on some exposed skin someplace

or he would have breathed it in.
It is curious.

[forgotmylogin]

20. Leaky bag? Quick thumping of seat cushions during a search?

He may have kicked up a cloud of stuff that clung to his sleeve.

[Heddi]

21. RN here-- repeated use can allow a tolerance for fentanyl

I had an outpatient procedure and fentanyl IV was used as the sedative (along with IV versed). Fentanyl, because it is so potent, is dosed in micrograms instead of milligrams. I got 0.5mcg of fentayl and was in la-la land. Then again, I don't ever take anything stronger than Tylenol 3 once every 10 years.

However, I have patients that through body size (450lb dude vs 120lb woman) that won't blink an eye at 25 or 50mcg of fentanyl. And those aren't patients who are abusing it, either. For fentanyl addicts, they can easily take 150-300mcg doses and get the equivalence of a Tylenol 3

It is very possible that the suspect has a tolerance to fentanyl and therefore wasn't affected by it on his skin, vs the officer who is naive to fentanyl and therefore very susceptible to even small doses

[Orrex]

23. No shit? That's freaky!

Clearly we must begin preemptively dosing our cops with fentanyl as a precaution.


Thanks as always for your first-hand experience and expertise!

[Heddi]

28. It is freaky

I worked for years in an ER and saw little old ladies who weighed ~110 lbs with a broken femur or humerus who took 10x's more pain meds to knock them out than the addict in the next bed. Pain is an amazing thing, and our bodies don't read the same physiology text books that we do, apparently. Sonsabitches. Would make life a lot easier if they did rofl



So for patients who have really crazy wound care, or other painful procedures that are done regularly, we would give them fentanyl lollipops. They'd suck on one before the procedure, and then another one or two during the procedure. Those were really popular to steal when someone would get access to the medication dispensing system. All the fentanyl lollipops gone. They were clear and supposedly tasted like bubblegum

Signed,

Heddi, who is comatose after 1 dose of nyquil

[padfun]

14. So the suspect, who was covered in this power..

Must have died dozens of times.

[stevenleser]

26. See RN's post above. nt

[underpants]

24. Heard about this last week. It can be breathed in as well

First responders are taking to wearing masks for all contacts.