Berkeley County Coroner holds first overdose fatality review meeting

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – The Berkeley County Coroner’s Office held its first overdose fatality review meeting at Cypress Gardens on Thursday, where they met with local agencies to discuss ways to prevent drug overdoses.

Berkeley County Coroner Darnell Hartwell said his office has seen a rise in drug overdose death and believes it’s part of their job to prevent these types of deaths from happening.

Representatives from several agencies that encounter high-risk individuals met at Cypress Gardens for the first-ever Berkeley County Overdose Fatality Review.

“Today we’re going to be discussing a case of an actual overdose in Berkeley County. We’re going to look at the opportunities that we’ve had to make contact with him in positive ways to maybe redirect him to prevent this overdose,” said Allison Bilton, Berkeley Coroner’s Office Community Outreach Coordinator, of the initiative.

While his death is too late to prevent, they are hoping to reduce future overdoses.

“The problem is large here in Berkeley County and it’s large all over the nation. It’s something that we’re all working collaboratively together to try to make a difference here,” said Wehme Hutto, Exe. Director, Ernest E. Kennedy Center.”

Overdose deaths are a shockingly big problem in Berkeley County. Fortunately, there seems to be some progress being made.

Hutto says there were 258 suspected overdoses in Berkeley County by this point in 2022. So far in 2023, they have 228. That is a 3.2% decrease. 

The suspected fatal overdoses at this point in 2022 were 27. There were 20 in 2023. That is a 25.9% decrease.

Leaders are hoping to lower those overdose numbers even more.

“One of the things that we are trying to do is look at these cases and find out where we could have possibly had some improvements,” said Coroner Hartwell.

Coroner Hartwell said they are going to hold these overdose fatality review meetings once a month.