Fighting opiate addiction is every bit as important as fighting the other diseases we encounter — STEMI, stroke, trauma, sepsis and the like. There is a tremendous article on the  JEMS website by Dr. Alex Garza and Dr. Sophia Dyer about EMS joining the fight against the opiate epidemic in a broader way than just responding […]

I have been writing much lately about sorrow and despair in Hartford, so I thought I would take a break, and lifting my eyes up from the heroin bags on the ground, look at some of the beauty of Hartford as seen on the city’s murals.

A 10-year-old girl was shot in the face in Hartford yesterday. She wasn’t walking down the street or riding a school bus, she was in her own home when the bullets raked through the front door. She doesn’t live on a busy street like Park Street or Albany Avenue where criminal activity can be going […]

Hartford Cops: Rash of Heroin Overdoses Part of Upward Trend  After a lull of a few weeks, the overdoses started going out again this week.  An hour after I left work Tuesday night, there was a triple OD that is widely being reported in the news, along with two other overdoses not long after.  The […]

The Connecticut Department of Public Health has alerted all EMS services in the state that there is recall on the MAD Nasal Intranasal Mucosal Atomizer Device.  The company recall notice says” Teleflex Medicine is recalling these products as they may not deliver a fully atomized plume of medication. ”  The company says they have received […]

Some heroin dealers in Hartford have switched up their drug stamps to celebrate Halloween. Drug Users are being treated to brands such as Killer Clowns, Freddy vs. Jason and Casper (the Friendly Ghost). The question for the users on Halloween (and one every day they buy): is their special envelope a trick or treat?Are they […]

In the Looney tunes cartoon, Ralf E. Wolf and Sam the Sheepdog go to work each morning, exchanging greetings while punching the clock. “Morning, Ralph,” the dog says. “Morning, Sam,” the wolf replies. Then it is down to business. The wolf spends his hours trying to steal the sheep and the sheepdog spends his hours […]

It hasn’t come to Hartford yet, but EMS in states such as Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and Florida have encountered patients who have overdosed on heroin laced with Carfentanil, an opiate of the synthetic fentanyl family that is 10,000 times stronger than morphine and usually used to tranquilize elephants.  Carfentanil is basically a chemical weapon […]

The early returns are in. Heroin addicts in the greater Hartford area have cast two votes for Donald Trump (Using empty heroin bags I found in an area commuter lot as a proxy). Questions.  Did the dealer stamp half his bags with Donald Trump and the other half with Hillary Clinton in order to provide […]

Last year we heard about a CPR app that alerted people who knew CPR to nearby cardiac arrests so they could race to the scene and perform bystander CPR, potentially saving precious minutes that could mean the difference between life and death, or between anoxic brain injury and the life of a taxpayer. This week […]