Overdose reported in Coatesville

First responders in Coatesville were dealing with another heroin overdose this week.

COATESVILLE » Emergency crews were called to an apartment above a store on the 100 block Lincoln Highway Thursday day for a reported overdose. Police radio indicated a 41-year-old man collapsed in the bathroom with a needle in his arm. Coatesville police Sgt. Rodger Ollis confirmed the call was an overdose. The condition of the victim could be ascertained.

Police responded and rendered care until EMS arrived, Ollis said in an email. Washington Hose Company ambulance, Coatesville Fire department and Brandywine hospital medics responded. The patient was taken to Brandywine Hospital. His condition was not known. An automated device could be seen performing CPR on the patient as medics wheeled him to the ambulance. Police could be seen holding a Naloxone kit.

Chester County Chief Deputy Coroner David Daugherty said there was a death Thursday in Coatesville but it is currently under investigation and the cause and manner are pending. He would not say if it was an overdose.

There have been 64 overdose deaths in the first half of 2017, according to Chester County Coroner statistics. There were 97 in all of 2016. Many of those overdose deaths involved the presence of fentanyl.

“It’s unfortunate, but what the coroner’s report – and the Drug Overdose Task Force research confirms – is that the overdose deaths are occurring across the county and in more than half of the county’s municipalities,” Chester County Commissioners Chairwoman Michelle Kichline told the Daily Local in a February story on 2016 overdose deaths. “North and south, from North Coventry to Elk Township, east and west from Tredyffrin to West Caln.”

In June Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan announced 40 drug dealers were arrested in “Operation Wildfire,” in an attempt to address the overdose epidemic.

Just this week, police charged a Phoenixville man with selling the opioid carfentanil that led to a man’s death. Damon Eskridge, 20, was arrested after police say they linked him to the overdose death of the 34-year-old man and the first appearance of carfentanil in Chester County. Carfentanil is an extremely powerful synthetic opioid that is used to tranquilize elephants.

PETE BANNAN — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Coatesville emergency medical providers treat a man who overdosed in an apartment on the 100 block of Lincoln Highway on Thursday. The nan was taken to Brandywine Hospital Thursday.

PETE BANNAN — DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA A Coatesville police officer holds a Naloxone kit after a man overdosed in an apartment on the 100 block of Lincoln Highway to Brandywine Hospital Thursday.