Heroin/Fentanyl Deaths Topped 100 In 2019: O'Neil

JOLIET, IL — There were more than 100 heroin/Fentanyl overdose deaths last year in Will County, the highest total since the county began tracking heroin deaths in 1999, according to a press release issued Tuesday by Will County Coroner Patrick K. O'Neil.

Overall, the coroner's staff determined there were 133 accidental overdose deaths in 2019 across Will County and 101 of those involved heroin and Fentanyl use, O'Neil noted.

"My office started tracking heroin related deaths in 1999 when the drug was responsible for six deaths," O'Neil said in a press release. “The latest death toll represents a 1,583 percent increase."

During a presentation in front of the Joliet City Council in February, Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner said the city of Joliet had 33 heroin-related deaths in 2019, the city's highest number in recent years.

Even though opioid-related deaths have risen, O'Neil believes that putting Narcan in the hands of first responders has saved thousands of lives in Will County.

After seven terms of office, O'Neil, a Democrat, is not running for re-election this year. Instead, O'Neil has endorsed the candidacy of Laurie Summers, who resigned from her seat on the Will County Board last fall to take a position on O'Neil staff as a deputy chief coroner.

Summers, a Crete resident, faces competition in the March 17 Democratic primary from Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Sean Talbot.

To learn more about the candidates seeking to replace O'Neil you can read their Patch questionnaires:

• Laurie Summers: Will Co. Coroner 2020 Election Candidate
• Sean Talbot: Will Co. Coroner 2020 Election Candidate