New numbers show scary drug trend in Lee County

LEE COUNTY, Fla.- More than 100 patients checked into Southwest Florida hospitals in 2014 after overdosing on heroin.

The number of patients last year at Lee Memorial Hospital who overdosed on the deadly drug was more than the previous four years combined.

Lee Memorial Hospital has 121 people listed in their system who overdosed on heroin. Some say, that number is just a conservative amount.

“That’s from people who are looking and coding. I think the number’s actually even higher,” said Dr. Timothy Dougherty, a toxicologist for Cape Coral Hospital.

He says the increase in patients can be attributed to a number of factors, but one stands out to him.

“It’s an unfortunate consequence of the pill mills that have been shut down,” said Dougherty, referring to pain clinics that would sell medications like Oxycodone.

He says often times, those medications would get abused.

“You can’t buy them on the street, but they’re still addicted to narcotics. Now, they are using heroin.”

“Fentanyl is certainly in the Southwest Florida area,” said Brandon Short, a psychiatrist for the White Sands Treatment Center in Fort Myers.

He says addicts are mixing heroin and fentanyl. He believes that may also be behind the increased numbers.

“Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine.”

Dr. Dougherty says the numbers concern him for another reason. For all the patients he knows he’s treating in the emergency room, there are others who won’t make it to the hospital. Their overdose could very well kill them.

The White Sands Treatment Center tells WINK News more than half of their patients in Southwest Florida are being treated for fentayl use.