Forsyth County

Hospitals brace for fentanyl overdoses

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Metro Atlanta hospitals are bracing for more serious overdose patients now that a new strain of fentanyl surfaced in Georgia that's resistant to overdose reversal drugs.

Channel 2's Tom Regan has been talking with doctors and nurses about the problem they see firsthand every day.

The emergency department at Northside Hospital Forsyth is treating an average 50 overdose patients a month.

Hospitals brace for overdose patients now that new strain of fentanyl surfaced. (Credit: DEA)

They worry that will continue climbing as stronger strains of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl surface in the suburbs.

Nurses are prepping one of the intensive care unit rooms where overdose patients are treated, some arriving close to death.

RELATED STORIES:

'Either they quit breathing and then that can lead to cardiac arrest, or they will come in and they will be unresponsive,” coordinator Kim McDuffie said.

The overdoses caused by pain pills, heroin and fentanyl, and fentanyl, often mixed with heroin and made into counterfeit pills, are getting stronger and more resistant to overdose reversal drugs like Naloxone and Narcan.

“The problem is it requires much, much higher doses to reverse the effect of the new drugs,” Dr. Adam Friedlander said. “It will work eventually, but if an ambulance were to be on the scene, this would probably outstrip the supply they have on the ambulance.”

As Regan first reported Tuesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation says a new strain of fentanyl called acryl fentanyl was found in drug seizures made by the Forsyth Sheriff's Office in March. In early April, four people overdosed on fentanyl, two died.

Friedlander said he doesn't know if any of his patients have overdosed on this latest strain of the illicit chemical, but it's cause for concern.

“This new danger is muddying the waters and definitely a problem we're going to see,” Friedlander said. “We are seeing more overdoses by people you would not expect to be a typical overdose. Young people, high school students."