MCSO: Deputy exposed to fentanyl in jail
A Mendocino County Corrections Deputy was exposed to fentanyl Tuesday while responding to an inmate’s apparently suicidal overdose, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported.
According to the MCSO, the deputy responded to an inmate’s cell around 9:15 a.m. Dec. 8 because the 50-year- old man sounded upset after making a phone call. While the deputy was still tying to determine if the inmate was OK, the man reportedly “went unconscious and began to snore loudly.”
The deputy summoned additional staff, including medical personnel, who reportedly “noticed a plastic bundle containing a suspicious substance (which was) removed from the cell as medical staff arrived.” After medical staff assessed the inmate and administered two doses of NARCAN, the inmate regained consciousness.
Emergency medical services were then called to the jail and the inmate was transported to the hospital for further care and evaluation. During the transport, he was reportedly given two more doses of NARCAN by the paramedics, then returned to the jail later that day after further treatment.
The deputy who first discovered the inmate went
back to his cell and removed his property, “then shortly after began feeling ill.” After medical staff were summoned to examine the deputy, they administered a dose of NARCAN to the deputy, who reportedly “immediately felt better.” The deputy was also transported to the hospital via ambulance for assessment at the hospital, then released later that same day.
After the incident, the MSCO reports that the “contents of the plastic bundle were tested and came back presumptively positive for fentanyl, a powerful opiate. Specially trained personnel wearing hazardous material protective gear were then brought in to decontaminate the cell.”
The MCSO also notes that a review of the phone call the inmate made just prior to his overdose “indicated that the overdose may have been a suicide attempt (due to the inmate expressing hopelessness), and jail mental health staff was notified so that a mental health evaluation could be done.”