Three staff members of a Bucks County ambulance squad and one firefighter were hospitalized last week after being exposed to a extremely potent variety of heroin while responding to a call for a cardiac arrest, according to an email from the Newtown Ambulance Squad.
“I want to share with everyone an experience we had at Newtown last night which lead to the exposure of three of our providers to what is believed to be ‘Gray Death’ variety of heroin, or Carfentanil. This landed three of our staff in the hospital and one firefighter,” read the letter, shared on social media and since verified by Patch.
Carfentanil is an opioid which experts believe to be 10,000 times deadlier than heroin and 100 times deadlier than fentanyl, a chemically similar drug.
According to the letter, which was signed by the squad’s Chief of Operations Evan Resnikoff, the ambulance was responding to a call of a reported cardiac arrest in a vehicle on the Newtown Bypass. The exposure to carfentanil is believed to have come from patient’s arm and inside of the vehicle, the letter said.
All four providers have since been discharged from the hospital with a diagnosis of narcotic exposure with no follow-up required, the letter said.
Symptoms of carfentanil exposure include change in mental status with agitation, hypertension, tachycardia and diaphoresis, among other symptoms.
“I pass this along to remind everyone to be safe and vigilant as the heroin problem continues,” Resnikoff said in the letter.
