ALDEN, N.Y. (WKBW) — An officer tested positive for fentanyl after an exposure at Wende Correctional Facility on Tuesday, according to the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.
According to NYSCOPBA, the 55-year-old female officer, a 10-year veteran, was performing regular duties of opening cells for inmate recreation and began to feel dizzy, became nauseous, and developed a hot sensation throughout her body. Another officer called for a medical response and she was immediately brought to the facility's emergency room and treated by staff.
The union said that while staff were assisting the officer, the facility continued to run recreation, business as usual, and HAZMAT was deployed but not authorized to go to the affected area. The officer was transported to ECMC after a lengthy stay in the facility's ER.
According to NYSCOPBA, once at ECMC, the officer was decontaminated, and a urine test posted positive for fentanyl in her system. She was admitted to the hospital overnight for observation and released the following day. She has not returned to work.
Kenny Gold, NYSCOPBA Western Region Vice President, issued the following statement:
“For the first time we now were able to determine what the substance was that caused the officer at Wende to be incapacitated. For months we have had staff exposed at prisons across the state and HAZMAT teams were unable to determine what caused officers and civilian staff to develop symptoms. Thankfully, the veteran officer received toxicology tests at the hospital that determined exactly what drug got into her system, and I want to thank all the officers, medical staff, nurses, and doctors at ECMC for taking care of our member. The troubling aspect in this latest exposure is the fact that it took two hours to get her from facility emergency room to the hospital after she developed symptoms. We have all witnessed the deadly effects that Fentanyl can have on individuals and not getting her to the hospital for two hours was jeopardizing her wellbeing. The second part is not allowing the local HAZMAT team access to the area where she developed symptoms. They should have been allowed immediate access to determine what substance was in the air. Not doing so, put other staff and inmates at jeopardy as well. This should be the wake-up call that the State needs to address the exposures immediately for the safety and wellbeing of everyone who lives and works inside the prisons. DOCCS took steps in instituting legal mail scanning that has put a dent on contraband coming in through inmate legal mail and getting rid of germicide that inmates use to create toxic reactions. You cannot keep running these prisons as we still do, not have proper staffing and making exposures seem like the norm. What happened at Wende on Tuesday cannot ever happen again and the majority of state legislators need to take this incident as a wakeup call because someone will die and blood will be on their hands if something doesn’t change!”
7 News reached out to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision about the incident and received the following repsonse:
"On September 30, a Wende Correctional Facility Correction Officer became ill while on duty and was transported to an outside hospital. At this time, the investigation into the Officer’s illness is ongoing. The health and safety of staff and incarcerated individuals remains a top priority."
