On Tuesday night, the Jefferson County Medical Examiner, Nicole Tesch presented her yearly report. Tesch first went over her statistics, saying that while there were 140 more cases than usual, there was a slight decrease in drug-related deaths. Her team had to address a lot more scene investigations, with a lot more deaths at home. Of the total deaths, two were homicides. The suicide rate is down by a single death, which Tesch stresses is still a victory. All of this resulted in Tesch signing 92 more death certificates than the year before. Of those 92 certificates, 61 were due to COVID.
Drug deaths were down to 15 this year. Out of the 15 deaths, 14 were due to opiates. Heroin was responsible for the loss of two lives, while fentynal was responsible for 11. In an attempt to combat this in the future, Tesch says the staff has received Narcan training.
Goals set for 2021 include creating a new grief brochure for families, containing resources for coping with loss. The examiner would also like to train a new part time investigator on office procedures. She also said the team is looking to hold a fundraiser around suicide prevention week.
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