Fentanyl overdose victim upgraded to stable condition

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This article was published 23/11/2016 (3023 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The only man to survive one of three suspected fentanyl overdose cases in the city last weekend is reported to be improving in hospital.

The 21-year-old is now in stable condition, Winnipeg police said Wednesday.

Emergency personnel discovered the individual along with a 22-year-old man after responding to a medical distress call from 67 Kinlock Lane Sunday night. Illegal drugs were found in the upscale Richmond West rental home, located near the University of Manitoba, leading to speculation the men were students.

The 22 year-old man died. Earlier on Sunday, a man in his 30s was found dead at the Mariaggi Hotel in the Exchange District in another suspected fentanyl overdose case.

Manitoba has recorded “at least” two dozen deaths from opioid overdoses in 2016 — nine confirmed to be caused by or related to fentanyl, Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen told the legislature Tuesday afternoon.

The confirmed deaths occurred in the first five months of 2016, Goertzen said.

The province recorded 20 such deaths a year earlier.

“This number is expected to go up,” the health minister said this week. “Sadly, we know as the toxicology reports come back from other overdose cases, this number will almost certainly be higher than in previous years.”

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca