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Woman Visiting Children’s Hospital Overdoses On Heroin In The Bathroom

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Steve Birr Vice Reporter
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A woman visiting a children’s hospital in Indianapolis was found unresponsive in the bathroom after suffering from an apparent heroin overdose.

Workers at the Riley Hospital for Children allegedly found the unidentified 37-year-old woman unconscious in the bathroom of the campus’ Simon Family Tower Saturday afternoon. Responding police officers with the Indiana University Academic Health Center discovered a spoon with “burn marks and a white powder substance,” along with suspected heroin and syringes in her purse, reported CBS4 Indy.

The woman was taken to the emergency room for treatment. Officials said they could not release details about the incident due to privacy laws but confirmed she was a visitor, not a member of university staff.

Indiana is being battered by the opioid epidemic, which continues to push users towards street drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Police arrested a mother and father in Indiana on March 9 after the parents suffered heroin overdoses in their SUV with their three children inside.

An unidentified driver, who told police the SUV was sitting in the middle of the roadway, discovered the family. First responders administered overdose reversal drug Narcan to the couple before taking them to a local hospital for treatment.

“They will do almost anything to get that fix whether or not they place another person or a child in danger,” Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said, according to WGN 9.

Drug overdoses, fueled by substances like heroin, are now the leading cause of accidental death for Americans under age 50, killing more than 64,000 people in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NOW WATCH President Trump Vow to win the war against opioid addiction:

Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse released on Sept. 7 paints a grim outlook for the future of the drug crisis ravaging American communities.

The study predicts America’s addiction epidemic will continue to deteriorate, pushing drug deaths to an estimated 71,600 in 2017. If the estimates prove accurate, 2017 will be the second year in a row drug deaths surpass U.S. casualties in the Vietnam War.

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