Saturday, May 27, 2017
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police and paramedics responded Thursday to two suspected heroin overdoses within 90 minutes of each other, where both people had to be revived with Narcan.
About 9 p.m., they were called to the 200 block of Hubbard Road, where a Windsor Street man, Gerald Heathcock, 34, had to be revived with the opiate antidote. When the man was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, it was discovered he had a warrant, and he has a police hold on him.
About 10:15 p.m., police were called to a home in the 300 block of South Bon Air Avenue, where a 32-year-old Old Furnace Road man was unconscious and having trouble breathing. Paramedics administered several doses of Narcan, but they failed to revive the man until they injected it directly into his shins.
The homeowner told police the man was a friend of his who had come over to spend the night before he went to a rehabilitation facility today, but when he showed up he already appeared to be under the influence of some kind of drug before he passed out.
Reports said police found a bag of white powder, which the homeowner said the man had with him. They took it so it could be tested to see what it is.
Police also released a report Friday about the overdose death of 38-year-old Melody Gribben about 3:50 p.m. Thursday inside a home in the 200 block of East Avondale Avenue.
Reports said when the body-removal team for the Mahoning County Coroner’s office moved the woman onto a gurney there was a needle underneath her.
Police were first called to the neighborhood about 30 minutes before because a school bus driver said there were two children running around naked. Police rode around the neighborhood but could not find the children.
A neighbor found the children and took them in, and another neighbor went to their home to get them clothing and found the mother slumped over in a closet. Reports said witnesses told police the woman had been released from rehabilitation facility on Wednesday.
The children were given to the woman’s live-in boyfriend who also is their father, reports said.