TWO DIE OF APPARENT HEROIN OVERDOSES

A man and woman who died in separate locations in Missoula last weekend
appeared to have overdosed on heroin.

Although toxicology results haven't been received from the State Crime Lab
in Missoula, a preliminary screening indicates the deaths were caused by
opiates, said Missoula police Capt. Steve Ross.

The first death came Friday morning, when a maid found a 40-year-old woman
dead in a room at the Orange Street Inn. Early Saturday morning, a
43-year-old man was found in his car in the parking lot outside the
emergency room of Community Medical Center.

It doesn't appear the two overdose deaths are related, said police
Detective Jeff Dobie.

While there always is concern that "dirty" drugs or a deadly combination
could be responsible for the deaths, emergency rooms at both Missoula
hospitals did not report any other heroin overdoses over the weekend.

If there were an impure drug or combination in Missoula, there probably
would have been additional overdoses that were not fatal, said Ross.

In the Saturday death, an unidentified man called the emergency room and
said there was a man outside who needed medical assistance, said Dobie.

Police are interested in knowing more how the man got to the hospital and
where he was when he ingested the drugs.

"I'd like to know who dumped him," said Dobie.

Although police have a partial description of a man, a woman and a vehicle,
they'd like to know more, he said.

While there was drug paraphernalia in the hotel room where the woman died,
there were no drugs or paraphernalia in the man's car.

Brant Goode, communicable disease intervention specialist at the Missoula
City-County Health Department who tracks overdose deaths, said heroin
overdose deaths are rare in Missoula.

In Missoula County from January 1999 to March 2000, there was a single
heroin overdose death.

Narcotic-Reversing Drug Saves Life

In a separate situation a couple of weeks ago, a Missoula woman whose heart
stopped beating from an overdose of heroin was revived by a drug that's
long been available in such incidences.

Naloxone (Narcan), which was administered by paramedics, revived the woman.

The narcotic-reversing drug, which acts as an antagonist and exhibits
almost no pharmacologic activity of its own, is carried on all ambulances,
said Don Whalen, general manager of Missoula Emergency Services, and is
available in hospital emergency rooms.

It is used when a patient is in a coma or is suffering respiratory
depression as a result to a narcotic overdose from drugs like Demerol,
Dilaudid, Darvon, Percodan, morphine or heroin.