Baby’s overdose suspected to be fentanyl: police

Infant now stable; charges possible

W I N N I PE G • Police in Winnipeg are investigating a suspected fentanyl overdose in an infant, as the opioid crisis deemed a public health emergency in B.C. appears to be sweeping the country.

Const. Rob Carver says paramedics were called to a home in Winnipeg Tuesday night and found a child under the age of 18 months in critical condition. Investigators also found residue of what they suspect was fentanyl.

Police are still waiting for confirmation from Health Canada, Carver said, but investigators donned hazmat suits regardless.

“I don’t know any of the mechanics or details as to the possible route of exposure ... but our investigators are concerned enough that front-line officers aren’t going to go in. We’ve got to bring (in) people in hazmat suits,” he said.

“If it’s deadly for a grownup, I can’t imagine the risks that would be involved for an infant,” he added.

The child’s condition has been upgraded to stable and the prognosis is good, Carver said. “That’s about as close as we want to come to what would have been a tragedy.”

Charges are possible, the officer said.

“If this unfolds the way it looks like it potentially may, if we have an infant who was exposed to a potentially deadly substance — an illegal substance — I think the conclusion would be investigators would be looking at some sort of child endangerment (charges).”

Police and health officials say fentanyl poses a serious threat to public safety across North America. The opioid is used as a painkiller for terminally ill cancer patients and others suffering from painful illnesses, and is 100 times more powerful than heroin.

The Winnipeg incident occurred the same week it was reported that 70 people died of opioid overdoses in Nova Scotia in the first eight months of 2016, while Brit- Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than heroin. The drug has killed 488 people so far this year in British Columbia, which has been the epicentre of opioid deaths in Canada. ish Columbia announced an all-out assault against a drug crisis that has killed 488 people so far this year.

Nova Scotia chief public health officer Dr. Robert Strang said while there isn’t widespread use of fentanyl yet in that province, a spike in cases is prompting his office to urge a “proactive response” as the use of drug spreads from British Columbia and Alberta into the eastern provinces.

“We’ve had some very tragic cases, of young people ... that have died of overdose death in Nova Scotia,” Strang said. “Each of those is a tragic loss of life and a significant waste.”

British Columbia has been the epicentre of opioid deaths in Canada, and the province declared a public health emergency in April, after which the coroner’s service began collecting and releasing monthly statistics on overdose deaths.

Citing the latest numbers from the coroners service, the B.C. Public Safety Ministry said Thursday there were 555 illicit drug deaths from January to the end of September in B.C. this year, compared with 508 deaths for 2015.

Fentanyl was detected in more than 60 per cent of the 2016 deaths.

B.C. Health Mi n i s t e r Terry Lake said Wednesday during an update on the opioid emergency that 13,000 life-saving kits have been distributed cost-free to nearly 300 sites across the province, including emergency departments, publichealth units and provincial and federal correctional facilities.

Over 11,000 B.C. residents have been trained to administer naloxone — which can block or reverse the effects of opioids — including such first responders as police officers and firefighters.

“All ambulance crews and 46 fire departments are now carrying naloxone,” Lake said. He noted that August marked the first month of 2016 that the number of opioid deaths was reduced over the equivalent month in 2015, “but we are very, very cautious about what that means. We need more data, more time to see if there’s a trend happening.”

Dr. Gus Grant, the registrar and CEO of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, said the opioid overdose figures from the West are dire — and provide a warning to the East Coast.

“Five hundred (deaths). That’s a couple of planes going down. That’s an extraordinary number,” he said in a telephone interview.

“I don’t want to be alarmist, all I can say is this: I don’t know any reason why Nova Scotians should think that we will have an experience different from that of B.C. It’s not like our demographics are meaningfully different, that we can comfort ourselves by saying it’s not going to happen here.”