Awhile back, Angela Gardner tweeted: “Apparently there is a new batch of ‘cheese’ on the street.” Gardner is the president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and she works at Parkland. I got her on the phone to explain what’s happening down there.
Gardner has worked at Parkland for about five months. In the first four, she says, she saw only a few cheese overdoses come through the ER. But in the last couple of weeks, she has seen about half a dozen. She stresses that her count is anecdotal. The patients have all been males in their early 20s. They all say they did the drug at a party. “I’m struck that these kids think that because they’re snorting the cheese, it’s not as bad for them as injecting heroin,” Gardner says. “They don’t know that it can stop your breathing and kill you.” Her patients have all survived.
Side note: I asked her how the flu is looking at Parkland. Gardner’s response: “The flu is looking terrible! It’s terrible!” She thinks Dallas will get the H1N1 vaccine the first part of November, and she encourages everyone to get a shot.
