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Jennings County Sheriff’s Office releases 911 calls of multiple heroin overdoses

JENNINGS COUNTY (WISH) — Police in Louisville say 24 people overdosed on heroin Tuesday, one week after police in Southern Indiana responded to more than a dozen heroin overdoses in one night.

The Jennings County Sheriff’s Office released some of the frantic 911 calls from that night.

“He is in a honda, silver. He looks like he’s OD’d, he’s got a syringe in his hand,” one caller said.

“Yes, I need an ambulance to my house right away. My 16-year-old daughter is um like out, she’s like passing out, her eyes are rolling back of her head,” another said.

“There’s two of them in the car. Neither one of them are conscious,” another caller said.

She was calling for Devin Fear.

“Thought about it and he said, ‘Well, maybe we should do a little, tiny bump’ and I said, Nah man, just do as much as we can,’ so we did a big old line,” Fear said.

He said he planned to die that day. He started using heroin when he was 14, but had been clean for three years.

“I don’t really remember nothing at all actually, to be honest with you. As soon as I went out, only thing I remember coming back to was like I was in a long dream with no pictures is all it was just dark,” he said.

But Narcan, given to him by deputies, kept him alive.

“It kind of does scare me cause you know, a couple days ago if you would have asked me the same question, I would have told you ‘No it doesn’t scare me’ because I wanted to die. But if you asked me today, nah I was, it does scare me that if they weren’t there I would not be here right now,” he said.

“Normally it takes one dose of Narcan. That night it was taking a minimum of two to get results,” Jennings County Lt. Mike Mowery said.

“My concern was how many we aren’t getting called to and I was really afraid that we were gonna end up getting numerous calls the next day of people who have passed away,” Jennings County Detective Jeff Jones said.

Of the 10 possible overdoses deputies responded to that night, one was fatal. The victim was a 52-year-old woman. Police have not released her name. They say they are waiting for toxicology results to determine if heroin is what caused her death.

Police in Seymour were hearing about the overdoses in Jennings County and then responded to three at one time in their city. They also used more doses of Narcan than usual, something officers are concerned about.

“With these free Narcans that they are giving out, these people are going to shoot up and overdose and their friends are going to give them the Narcan so we’ll never know that the crime is being committed,” Lt. John Watson said.

Dr. Frank Pangello, Medical Director of the Emergency Department, said they are seeing a lower number of overdose patients visit the emergency room because of the Narcan.

“First responders have it, the police have it, people can buy it and give it to their friends. So where as we used to see a lot of overdoses, we’re actually getting less because people are getting medicine at home before they get here,” he said.

Lt. Watson said education is the key to stopping heroin use. In Jackson County they have also recently started a drug court.

“They have to commit a crime to get involved in the drug court. The drug court is forcing them to get help,” he said.

In an effort to prevent nights like last Tuesday.

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