WILTON MANORS, Fla. — A Spring Break party at a Wilton Manors rental house Thursday ended with six college students overdosing on fentanyl-laced cocaine, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials said.
Four of the six students in town for the break were using the laced drug. At least two of them immediately went into cardiac arrest, Gollan said.
Two others in the house in the 800 block of Northwest 29th Court ran to help their friends by administering CPR. Then those two were exposed to the fentanyl by giving mouth-to-mouth, Gollan said.
“They then went down,” he said.
Fentanyl is a synthetic prescription opioid that is commonly made illegally. It is about 100 times more powerful than morphine. Just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose, according to a public safety alert from the DEA.
Four people were taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, while the other two were taken to Holy Cross Health.
As of Thursday night, five were in stable condition, and one was intubated in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit. The ages of the patients was not immediately clear, Gollan said.
Other students, in addition to the six hospitalized, were staying at the property, Gollan said.
Spring Break in South Florida draws hundreds of college-aged students to its many beaches each year, which typically runs from March 4 to about April 3 depending on the schools.
With the episode happening shortly into Spring Break, Gollan said there’s a concern that throughout the break, things could become “much worse” if laced drugs are spreading in the area.
“This is a great concern because you have a drug that’s laced with unknown substance here, and I mean, it’s just the beginning of Spring Break,” Gollan said.
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