Westmoreland County coroner reports record overdoses in 2017

PIttsburgh Post-Gazette

Westmoreland County has been inundated by the same opioid drug crisis affecting Western Pennsylvania and the rest of the country, according to a report released Wednesday by the county coroner’s office.

In the 2017 annual report, county Coroner Kenneth A. Bacha said his office received a record number of cases related to accidental fatal drug overdoses, with most of them caused by fetanyl and heroin or combinations involving the two.

While heroin overdoses actually decreased since 2016, the report said fatal overdoses involving fentanyl increased 38 percent since 2016 and 463 percent since 2015.

In the most recent report, 141 of the 193 fatal overdoses investigated by the coroner’s office in 2017 involved fentanyl.

Overall, the office said accidental drug overdoses have increased 777 percent since 2002.

Of the 193 overdoses, the largest concentration of them — 21 — were reported in Jeannette, followed by Hempfield (19), New Kensington (12) and Derry (11). Greensburg, Latrobe and Unity each had 10 overdose deaths, the report said.

The office reported that 2017 was its busiest year. In all, it dealt with 2,822 cases, which was 59 more than the previous year. In 2002, which is the first year in which data is available in the report, the coroner’s office had 1,313 cases. Its busiest month was December, when the office had 278 cases.