Charleston coroner: Overdose deaths on the rise

Some 187 people in Charleston County died so far this year from drug overdoses — a 15% increase from the 162 people who fatally overdosed in the same time period last year, Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal said today.

“Fentanyl still remains our biggest killer,” O’Neal said. “Please hear my heart. We are trying to prevent as many deaths as we can. But we need our community not to be complacent.

“Not only are the drugs killing us individually, they’re now killing us collectively,” she added.

Nanci Steadman Shipman, executive director and founder of nonprofit recovery organization WakeUp Carolina added, in a voice strained with painful emotion, “Our family and our community are losing too many people, and I know how that feels. I lost my 19-year-old son.”

Shipman joined O’Neal and Sarah Halse, prevention coordinator at Charleston Center, an addiction treatment facility, in a Thursday press conference to draw attention to the overdose problem.

“This isn’t a population that’s coming out of the college party crowd,” O’Neal said, noting that fatal overdoses hit every demographic, regardless of race, age, or jurisdiction.

What to do if someone is overdosing

To prevent overdose fatalities, Shipman said she and other overdose prevention advocates have been “begging and pleading for the community” to learn how to use Narcan, a spray which reverses the effects of opioids that often are the culprits in drug overdoses. Narcan training is widely available, she added. On Thursday, for example, WakeUp Carolina offered 13 trainings throughout the area.

You also can get Narcan — along with fentanyl test strips — for free from South Carolina distributors listed on the website justplainkillers.com, Shipman said.

Test strips are important because overdoses are often the product of a mixture of cocaine with fentanyl, O’Neal said, displaying a test strip in her hand during a press conference.

If you do encounter someone who is overdosing, O’Neal added, it might look like they’re sleeping it off — or you might think they’re snoring. But you should try to wake them up, and if you can’t, call 911, she said.

“They are not snoring,” the coroner emphasized. “They are dying.”

What’s more, “you are protected by the Good Samaritan Law when you call 911,” Shipman said, so you should never abandon an overdosing friend or family member.