Coroner’s office struggles with rising OD rate
Funeral homes, area hospitals could be used to store bodies.
The escalating number of overdose deaths in the Dayton area has forced the local coroner’s office to take drastic measures, including contracting with a local funeral home late last year to store bodies.
“So far, it’s happened only once, but we have plans in place if we need to outsource some storage again,” said Montgomery County Coroner Kent Harshbarger.
Contingency plans call for again enlisting the help of local funeral homes, and also storing bodies in refrigerated trailers at the coroner’s office downtown at 361 W. 3rd St. The coroner’s office has also reached out to local hospitals to use their storage facilities as a last resort.
“It’s just nonstop anymore. We’re seeing the same tragedy over and over again.”
According to Harshbarger, as many as seven of the approximately 10 bodies a day the coroner’s office is handling are the result of suspected overdose deaths, which rose to a record 3,050 in Ohio last year, mainly from heroin overdoses. In Montgomery County, the number of accidental drug overdose deaths climbed from 127 in 2010 to 355 last year, based on preliminary figures.
The local coroner’s office handles bodies from approximately 30 counties, according to Harshbarger, who said his office has struggled to process bodies at the current intake rate before reaching its 42-body storage capacity.
“We’re struggling, but we are meeting the needs,” he said.
“We’re at a critical point. If this continues over time, we’ll have to investigate a new physical structure. That’s a big ask.”
Harshbarger said the current facility was remodeled last year to add 12 new storage units in anticipation of the increased demand, but there is no room in the building to accommodate more storage without compromising office space and the autopsy lab.
Cramped quarters, in addition to the steady stream of bodies, are already having an impact on morale, he said: “There’s no decompression time, and that begins to weigh on people.”
While Montgomery County health and law enforcement officials have made progress in their fight against the deadly heroin epidemic, limited resources and the emergence of new and deadlier narcotics are not only putting pressure on the coroner but also agencies that provide rehab and addiction services.
“This epidemic has taken us all by storm, all across this country,” said Helen Jones-Kelley, executive director of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services board of Montgomery County. “We have never seen an addiction crisis like this, at least not in my career. This is one of those situations that requires all hands on deck.”
The rate of fatal overdose deaths in the United States has nearly tripled since 1999, rising from 6.1 deaths per 100,000 people to 16.3 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That was faster than the rate of suicides and car accidents in 2015, underscoring the tragic consequences of a growing nationwide heroin epidemic, which accounted for 25 percent of the overdose deaths in 2015 — triple the share from 1999, according to the report.
Ohio — with an overdose death rate of 29.9 per 100,000 — was among the five states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose in 2015, according to the CDC, including: West Virginia (41.5 per 100,000), New Hampshire (34.3 per 100,000), Kentucky (29.9 per 100,000), and Rhode Island (28.2 per 100,000).
A big reason for the surge has been the growing use of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic drug that is similar to morphine and heroin but is 50 to 100 times more potent. Fentanyl was responsible for one-third of the drug overdoses in Ohio last year.
“The product that they (drug users) are purchasing out there is scary,” Jones-Kelley said. “We’re probably going to experience even more heroin overdoses because it’s so readily available.”