Fentanyl overdose cases are on the rise in the Fort Worth area, doctors warn that small even tiny amount can kill
Fort Worth, TX – The use of fentanyl has increased in the country in the last year and so is the case in the Fort Worth area, doctors claim.
According to the data provided by the ambulance service MedStar, fentanyl overdose cases have nearly doubled in Fort Worth over the past three months compared to last year.
Fentanyl is often mixed in opioids which are sold on the street as pills, and a tiny amount can kill.
What is more alarming is the fact that many young people start to use fentanyl not aware how dangerous fentanyl is.
Earlier this year, the 16-year-old Luke died of fentanyl overdose and his mother R. Wright shared her thoughts with the public.
According to Wright, her son Luke was like any other teenager until he did the fatal mistake.
“Luke was a super sweetheart,” Wright said. “He was my best friend.” “He had a lot of friends. He was very social,” she said. “He did football, swimming competitively.”
Wright said Luke took a pill laced with fentanyl in February, the night before the Super Bowl.
“The last couple words he said to me right before he passed away was, ‘Mommy, I love you. I’m never going to leave you. You’re so beautiful.'”
He died in his bedroom.
But Luke is just one among many others who uses fentanyl lately and the situation is alarming. Just last week, a drug task force in Fort Worth seized enough pure fentanyl to kill 500,000 people, police said. Four people were arrested.
“Fentanyl is one of the most potent drugs that we have seen in our community,” MedStar spokesman Matt Zavadsky said. “We’re going into a holiday period where there’s already an elevated level of overdoses in our community so we’re really concerned.”
Dallas’ DEA local office officials say that at lest four out of 10 pills they seized last year contain a lethal dose of fentanyl and this is something almost no one is aware of. That’s one of the main reasons why people end up fatal.
“If you’re buying it off the street, it’s a very high likelihood it’s a counterfeit drug to begin with,” said special agent in charge Eduardo Chavez. “That is literally Russian roulette every time you buy what you believe a prescription drug off the street.”
Treating an overdosed person is easy if it’s not too late. According to the doctors, over-the-counter nose spray called Narcan can easily help people if taken on time.
“I didn’t have Narcan in my house so the takeaway is have Narcan in your medicine cabinet because you never know when you might need it,” Wright said.
In her son’s memory, she gets Narcan for free and passes it out to anyone whose life it might save.
She also set up a website to call attention to the drug.