A Coulee Region Health Care Provider is seeing an increase in overdoses and deaths due to fentanyl. Representatives with Gundersen Health System in La Crosse say there is a substantial spike in overdoses during the last four weeks, including nine deaths in the month of January alone.
One Gundersen healthcare professional says overdoses are impacting many different members of the La Crosse community
“It tends to peak in the 40s, but it’s a bell curve. You get teenagers, all the way up to those in the 60s and 70s. It’s really crossing many lines in our community age-wise, socio-economic, and race as well, so it’s really affecting a broad spectrum of our community.”
Doctors say fentanyl is typically mixed in with other drugs, and it only takes a small amount to cause an overdose. Symptoms of an overdose include unresponsiveness and slowed or no breathing.