West Point student overdose in Wilton Manors home – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

WILTON MANORS, FL. (WSVN) – Seven college students visiting South Florida for spring break who overdosed on drugs at a Wilton Manors Airbnb have been identified as West Point Academy cadets.

Wilton Manors police and Fort Lauderdale Fire officials responded to a home along 29th Yard Northwest and Ninth Avenue around 5:20 p.m. Thursday.

The house is listed as Airbnb.

“We saw paramedics take the unconscious children out of the house and just lay them on the grass,” neighbor Dana Fumosa said.

7SkyForce hovered over the house, as the men were taken to hospital.

Four of the victims were taken to Broward Health Medical Center and the other two victims were taken to Holy Cross Hospital.

On Friday morning, authorities said a seventh victim also needed to be taken to hospital.

Police remained at the scene to speak to a few people who remained at home.

Some of the students would be on the West Point varsity football team.

Investigators said the house was full of people, who were here during spring break, when at some point some started taking drugs and overdosing.

“The guys and girls there, they seemed to be having a good time. They did barbecues, went in the pool,” Fumosa said.

“We are told that four of these individuals had taken a substance believed to be cocaine with fentanyl added when they went into cardiac arrest,” said Fort Lauderdale Fire Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan.

That’s when first responders said two friends of the four victims started performing CPR, which also exposed them to the dangerous drug.

“I was just trying to make them reactive, but most of them were oblivious,” Fumosa said.

“We were able to get some of those people back, so their hearts were beating again, with a Narcan. However, four of those people were still in respiratory arrest,” Gollan said.

“Rescue 46 has a man who coded. I found the pulse. We believe it was an incident with cocaine laced with fentanyl. Six patients still have access,” the FLFR dispatcher said.

One of the spring breakers is still currently in the intensive care unit.

“He’s currently intubated, which means he’s not breathing on his own,” Gollan said.

Officials now fear that this bad batch of drugs could lead to more near-death situations.

“There is great concern that there could be more OD over the next few days, just based on what we see with the fentanyl that we saw that was here tonight,” Gollan said.

The house was still registered 12 hours after the first response from authorities.

Community members remain concerned.

“I mean, these kids don’t know what they’re getting. They’re just from out of state. They don’t know the area. They are at one [air]bnb,” Fumosa said.

With spring breakers in South Florida and bad batches of drugs on the streets, Wilton Manors town leaders released a statement saying in part, “We would like to warn spring breakers and members of the public the dangers of illegal drug use. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration is reporting that an increasing number of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl are surfacing, with some users overdosing and dying after taking just one pill,” the City of Wilton Manors said.

One of the students has since been released from hospital.

Three students are still hospitalized.

Academy leaders told 7News they were aware of the incident and were conducting their own investigation.

The investigation is still ongoing.

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