Coroner: DuPage Seeing Heroin Deaths At Record Pace
From the Chicago Daily Herald
DuPage County is averaging nearly one heroin overdose death per day this month, putting it on pace for a record-setting number of heroin deaths this year, Coroner Richard Jorgensen said Wednesday.
Jorgensen said there have been 18 confirmed heroin overdose deaths in DuPage County so far in 2013, and as many as 15 more deaths are awaiting toxicology reports where heroin is the suspected cause. Fifteen of the deaths have occurred in the past 17 days, he said.
"We've got something goin' on here," Jorgensen said. "We're just shocked. This is way out of the norm."
With as many as 33 heroin deaths already in 2013, DuPage County is likely to surpass the 38 heroin-related deaths in all of 2012 and 27 in 2011.
"It's all over the county. It's every city. There's no pocket," Jorgensen said.
The suburbs have been in the grips of a heroin epidemic for years, and while awareness and education efforts have ramped up, the scourge continues to take its toll.
Joe Salerno, 73, owner of Rosedale Chapels funeral home in Roselle, said he's had an average of two to three funerals per month for heroin overdose victims and it's been heartbreaking.
"I've never seen it this bad," said Salerno, also a Bloomingdale Township Trustee, who this week donated $2,000 to the Carol Stream Police Department to support its D.A.R.E. drug awareness program and plans to do the same in Glendale Heights. "The devastation it does to these families, it's really bothering me. We have to do something about it."
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Daily Herald
DuPage County is averaging nearly one heroin overdose death per day this month, putting it on pace for a record-setting number of heroin deaths this year, Coroner Richard Jorgensen said Wednesday.
Jorgensen said there have been 18 confirmed heroin overdose deaths in DuPage County so far in 2013, and as many as 15 more deaths are awaiting toxicology reports where heroin is the suspected cause. Fifteen of the deaths have occurred in the past 17 days, he said.
"We've got something goin' on here," Jorgensen said. "We're just shocked. This is way out of the norm."
With as many as 33 heroin deaths already in 2013, DuPage County is likely to surpass the 38 heroin-related deaths in all of 2012 and 27 in 2011.
"It's all over the county. It's every city. There's no pocket," Jorgensen said.
The suburbs have been in the grips of a heroin epidemic for years, and while awareness and education efforts have ramped up, the scourge continues to take its toll.
Joe Salerno, 73, owner of Rosedale Chapels funeral home in Roselle, said he's had an average of two to three funerals per month for heroin overdose victims and it's been heartbreaking.
"I've never seen it this bad," said Salerno, also a Bloomingdale Township Trustee, who this week donated $2,000 to the Carol Stream Police Department to support its D.A.R.E. drug awareness program and plans to do the same in Glendale Heights. "The devastation it does to these families, it's really bothering me. We have to do something about it."
Read more in our daily News Update...