TALLMADGE: Each week, and sometimes each day, police and paramedics in this quiet suburban community expect at least one opiate overdose call.
Since February, Tallmadge police have responded to 25 overdoses, two of which were fatal.
From June 9 through Sept. 9 alone, the Tallmadge Fire Department administered 31 doses of naloxone, a heroin antidote better known by the brand name Narcan, to 17 patients. That’s 25 percent of all emergency medications that Tallmadge emergency medical technicians gave during that time period.
“Sometimes we’ll have someone call in who knows it’s an overdose,” Tallmadge police Chief Ron Williams said. “Sometimes they are mysteriously found in someone’s house. We’ve had people dumped places. These days, what’s happening is that we are stumbling into them. We recently had someone driving a car who ran it off into the median. Sometimes when they pull off to the side of the road, we find them incapacitated behind the wheel.”
As the region deals with a growing opiate epidemic, first responders in communities like Tallmadge are struggling to keep up with the crisis.
“The drastic increase is pulling resources away from other patrol duties we need to be doing in the city such as traffic enforcement, community patrols and responding to calls,” Tallmadge police Detective Stephanie Laughlin said. “Each time an officer responds to the scene of an overdose, it is treated as a crime scene. A report has to be written, any evidence collected and follow up is done by the detective bureau. If there was any evidence or narcotics on scene, paperwork for appropriate charges has to be completed.”
Police officers usually arrive first at the scene of an overdose in Tallmadge and administer the initial nasal dose of naloxone.
Because most patients require more than one dose of the antidote, EMTs typically give another dose of naloxone nasally and then use an Ambu Bag, a breathing device with an oxygen reservoir that forces air into the victim’s lungs if they are not breathing (they usually aren’t).
“On our arrival, the most important thing is that the patient is breathing,” Tallmadge fire Chief Mike Passarelli said. “If they aren’t, we Ambu Bag them and administer the Narcan through an airway IV.”
The Tallmadge Fire Department obtains naloxone from area hospitals through a one-to-one exchange, Passarelli said. When patients are transported by ambulance to the emergency department, the hospital ER replaces each dose that EMS used. The patient then is billed for the medication.
If an overdose victim refuses to be taken to the ER, local hospitals have agreed to still restock the ambulances with naloxone, Passarelli said.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, the cost for an “overdose reversal kit” is about $30.
Tallmadge police began using naloxone several months ago, after receiving it from Summit County Public Health.
Repeat overdoses are common.
During one recent week, Tallmadge police had to administer naloxone to the same person on three separate occasions. In another recent case, police officers and firefighters had to give the antidote to a female who overdosed and was unresponsive on the side of the road. The next day, they again found her parked in her vehicle under the influence and barely responsive.
The opiate problem spiked in the region around the July Fourth holiday with the surprise arrival of carfentanil, a heroin-like drug that’s so potent it’s used to sedate elephants in zoos. Authorities already were contending with fentanyl, another powerful opioid painkiller that is up to 50 times more potent than heroin.
In the three weeks between July 5 and July 26, Akron paramedics responded to 236 overdose calls. The dramatic spike, from two or fewer per day to 11 or more, is thought to be the result of the introduction of carfentanil to the Akron-area drug market.
Tallmadge police also dealt with seven overdoses from July 29 through Aug. 7, including one fatality on Aug. 4.
“In the cases we have been dealing with recently, the testing results for narcotics seized are coming back more often as fentanyl and carfentanil than heroin,” Laughlin said.
It’s hard for authorities to determine how carfentanil began flooding the region or where it’s coming from, but the Tallmadge police detective has her opinion: “We have been hit so hard for several years now with heroin that dealers wanted something ‘new’ and ‘improved’ to sell, so they sought out more potent alternatives such as fentanyl and carfentanil. Just like with any other business, the dealer wants to stand out from the other dealers, sell a product no one else has and gain a higher customer base which in turn will make them more money — the ultimate goal in the drug trade.”
Most Tallmadge users are going into Akron to purchase heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil or an unknown combination of the three, Laughlin said. “There are a few dealers that do reside in the city of Tallmadge. Tallmadge is not immune to drug dealing and use.”
Police seized 8 grams of carfetanil this month, and as just a salt crystal’s worth of the drug can cause a user to overdose or die, the seizure is considered a successful attack against the opiate addiction in Tallmadge.
Despite the impact of opiate addiction on the area, Laughlin is hopeful Tallmadge and the rest of Summit County will tackle the issue.
“I see how hard we are all working to identify arrest and convict the dealers pushing this deadly narcotic on our communities,” Laughlin said. “I see how the patrol officers work every day responding not only to overdose calls, but all of the other calls that are correlated to the opiate epidemic — theft, shoplifting and fraud calls at local stores, burglaries and break-ins to residences and vehicles, OVIs, etc. I see how hard the fire department and EMS work trying to save lives. I see how hard families are fighting to help their loved ones. I even see how hard some addicts are fighting to stay alive.
“We need communities to come together to help address this epidemic. From a law enforcement perspective, I cannot do my job without the assistance of the community. If someone knows of someone dealing drugs, contact your local police departments and provide information. You can remain anonymous when doing so. If you see suspicious individuals or activity in your neighborhoods, call the police and report it.”