Counsellors were on hand Monday at Strathmore High School to provide support after three Alberta teens were sent to hospital over the weekend, suffering from what police are calling suspected opioid overdoses.
The three teens remain in critical condition, RCMP said Monday afternoon.
According to RCMP, the first 911 call came into EMS before 9 a.m. on Sunday and paramedics arrived at a home to find a 16-year-old boy in medical distress. As crews worked on him, RCMP were also called to help.
The teen was airlifted by STARS to a Calgary hospital in critical condition after being taken by ground ambulance. RCMP said the investigation determined the boy had taken prescription pills.
Investigators later learned a second teen, a 15-year-old boy, was taken to hospital earlier in the morning presenting with similar symptoms.
WATCH (Sunday, Sept. 22): Three teenage boys were sent to hospital in serious condition due to reported overdoses after first responders were sent to to the Town of Strathmore. Silvana Benolich reports.
Then RCMP learned a third boy, also 15, was also rushed to hospital under the same circumstances.
“All youths had attended the same house party the previous evening and are suspected of ingesting opioids in pill form,” RCMP said in a Monday news release.
According to EMS spokesperson Stuart Brideaux, the calls from three different locations within blocks of each other came in over the span of an hour Sunday morning.
“In all three instances they were found in similar medical distress — all requiring immediate intervention by paramedics outside a hospital environment and further aggressive care in hospital,” Brideaux said Sunday.
The three teens are still in hospital, RCMP said, adding that officers in Strathmore are making the investigation, as well as youth safety, a priority.
“Strathmore RCMP want to assure the public that this is an isolated incident,” police said.
One of the boys was at Rockyview General Hospital while the other two were flown to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, EMS told Global News on Sunday.
RCMP said victim’s services have been engaged with the families to support them as needed.
Anyone with information that may help the ongoing investigation is asked to contact the RCMP at 403-934-3535 or to anonymously contact Crime Stoppers.
— With files from Silvana Benolich, Global News
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