CT Surpassed 1,000 Overdose Deaths In 2017

Connecticut hit a grim milestone with at least 1,040 overdose deaths in 2017. Comparatively, the state had 917 overdose deaths in 2016.

Of those 675 involved the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, compared to 483 in 2016.

"These opioid deaths have continued to put a strain on the medical examiner’s office," said Chief Medical Examiner Dr. James Gill. "The office is currently under provisional national accreditation and will be re-evaluated in the fall. Currently, the only deficiency preventing full re-accreditation is the need for two additional medical examiners due to the increase in autopsies."

Final numbers are expected in another week or two as the office still have a few death investigations pending.

Connecticut has seen an almost 300 percent increase in overdose deaths over the past five years, which has lead to a 70 percent increase in autopsies.

Related: CT Heroin Epidemic: Interactive Map Of Deaths By Town

Gill testified at a appropriations committee hearing that the office is working on hiring another medical examiner, but that at least one more hire needs to be made to meet accreditation standards.

"Our loss of full accreditation already has been raised at criminal trials in attempts to impeach our work," Gill said. Because of the lag time between autopsies and homicide trials, I anticipate that these challenges will continue as we are just starting to see cases coming to trial of the autopsies that we have been doing since loss of full accreditation."

Image via Alex Costello/Patch Staff