Kendall County Record / KendallCountyNow.com • Thursday, September 10, 2015 •
NEWS 3
Kendall sheriff’s deputies now carrying Narcan By MATT SCHURY mschury@kendallcountynow.com Kendall County sheriff’s deputies are now carrying a substance to help individuals who overdose on opioids such as heroin, thanks to an anonymous donation from a local health care provider. County deputies recently received training to administer intranasal naloxone, commonly known as Narcan. Health officials say the drug helps reverse the effects of opioids such as heroin, methadone and oxycodone. It is used by paramedics in cases of drug overdoses. Administering Narcan quickly will allow time for medical personnel
to arrive and provide treatment to the person, according to the sheriff’s office. “I feel that it’s important to equip the deputies with some lifesaving options for these overdose situations,” Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird said this week. “I just think it is good public safety practice.” He explained that deputies are sometimes first on the scene of an overdose before medical personal and paramedics arrive. According to the sheriff’s office, the training was conducted at the Kendall County Public Safety Center by a local health care provider with a long-standing relationship with the community and the sheriff’s office. The health care
Kendall County death attributed to West Nile virus By MATT SCHURY mschury@kendallcountynow.com A resident of Kendall County has died after contracting West Nile virus, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The Kendall County Health Department reported that a man in his 70s died after becoming ill at the end of July. The man’s name is not being released, and health department officials from the state and county couldn’t say where the man was from in Kendall County. “I know that it was an elderly gentleman,” said Dr. Amaal Tokars, executive director of the Kendall County Health Department. IDPH reported that the case from Kendall County was the first of two deaths in Illinois. An elderly Cook County resident also died of the virus at the end of August. West Nile virus is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito that has picked up the virus by feeding on an infected bird, according to the state agency. Common symptoms include fever, nausea, headache and muscle aches. Symptoms may last from a few days to a few weeks. However, four out of five people infected with West Nile virus will not show any symptoms. In rare cases, severe illness including meningitis or encephalitis, or even death,
can occur. People older than 50 and those with compromised immune systems are at higher risk for severe illness from West Nile virus. Tokars noted that the recent dry hot weather at the beginning of September was the perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes. “This is that time of year where they have had some time to breed and they’re not the necessarily the hard biting mosquitoes that remind people – they’re the ones that you don’t notice as much that they’ve bitten you,” Tokars added. Last year there were 44 human cases, including four deaths. Cases in humans are underreported, according to the IDPH. Tokars noted that this is the first death that she could remember from West Nile in Kendall County. “If you don’t need to be out at dusk when mosquitoes are biting a lot, try not to be,” she said, adding that people should use bug spray or clothing with long sleeves and pants to prevent bites. She also recommended getting rid of standing water. If people have other conditions or their health is frail, that could put them at greater risk for complications from the virus. “West Nile is truly real and we’re sad to know about this death,” she said.
how to administer intranasal naloxone. “Training has been in place and the patrol deputies out on the street will have Narcan with them,” Baird said. Law enforcement officials say heroin use has increased in Kendall County over the last 10 years as part of a broader trend of use in Chicago and its suburbs. A string of three deaths from suspected heroin overdoses in as many days occurred in May. The deaths occurred in three Photo provided Pictured are (from left to right) Deputy Shadle, Deputy Dial, Deputy French and Sheriff Dwight A. different municipalities in Kendall County on May 22Baird. 24 in Yorkville, Montgomprovider also donated 60 The training consisted and symptoms of opioid ery and an unincorporatnasal spray doses of Nar- of a review of opioid use overdose and withdrawal, ed area of Kendall County can. and overdose trends, signs and a demonstration on near Boulder Hill.
Parkview Christian Academy High School students, staff
Photo provided
Parkview Christian Academy’s high school students and teachers for the 2015-16 school year are pictured above. The high school is now located in Club 47 in Yorkville. For more information about Parkview Christian Academy, a preschool through 12th grade school, go to parkviewchristian.net or contact the office at 630-553-5158.
Grant held up by fiscal stalemate By MATT SCHURY mschury@kendallcountynow.com The Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office is slated to receive a grant of nearly $150,000 from the state’s Adult Redeploy Illinois program to establish and pay for the operation of a drug court to serve the county’s 23rd Judicial Circuit. However, the funding is contingent upon an appropriation from the state of Illinois for fiscal 2016, County State’s Attorney Eric Weis told the County Board last week. The state’s fiscal year began July 1, but state lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner remain locked in a dispute over the budget.
“It sounds great except there is no funding for it yet because there is no [state] budget,” Weis said. “What we end up getting, I don’t know that’s what they tell us.” The grant is expected to run from Oct. 1 through June 30 and is a joint effort of the state’s attorney’s office, public defender’s office, court services, sheriff’s office and the judiciary. The goal of drug court is to reduce the number of nonviolent offenders who are sent to prison, Weis said, and to assist those who are addicted to drugs in leading a law-abiding lifestyle. Officials hope this grant funding will help to reduce the substantial cost for each person incarcerated in the state
prison system. Weis said the grant would help pay for a drug court coordinator, which coordinates the entire project and handles the day-to-day operations. It also covers some cost for counseling and drug testing. The funding will continue to come from the ARI program each year as long as the court justifies a reduction in the number of inmates they send to the Department of Corrections, according to Weis. Board member Bob Davidson questioned if the county could potentially be left with a program without funding. “Obviously if they can not incarcerate X amount of people, the money they
spend for us is obviously significantly less than what they would spend to incarcerate the individual,” Weis said. “We have to meet that requirement every year and if at the end of it there isn’t funding, then the program would cease to exist.” Members of an exploratory committee for a Kendall County Drug Court had submitted a request for ARI funding earlier this year in the hope of establishing a drug court for Kendall County. The committee worked over two years to review data, determine the need for a drug court, and began to develop criteria for those that would be accepted to the program, according to information from Weis’ office.
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