Category: Capitol Area

Burdened after Death: What you should know about North Carolina’s autopsy crisis

A severe autopsy backlog in North Carolina has added to the financial and emotional burdens of grieving families, a Charlotte Observer and News & Observer investigation revealed.

Here are three takeaways from Burdened after Death:

When people in North Carolina die unexpectedly, required medical investigations usually take more than 20 weeks. In nearly 1,400 cases since 2020, they took more than a year.

That crisis heaps more burdens on grieving family members during one of the worst periods of their lives. Some can’t touch funds they are entitled to inherit, leaving their biggest bills unpaid. Many must wait months for the answer to a burning question: Why did their loved one die?

The system is bogged down chiefly because there are too many bodies and too few pathologists and toxicologists to handle the load.

Read the full article on the Raleigh News and Observer web site.

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NC families of fentanyl victims advocate for more state action to fight opioid crisis

RALEIGH N.C. (WNCN) — Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved lifesaving medication to combat the opioid crisis.

While families of fentanyl victims in North Carolina are praising the decision, they say there’s more to do on a state level to prevent deaths.

Barb Walsh’s 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, died in 2021 after drinking from what she thought was a typical water bottle, instead it had dissolved fentanyl inside.

Walsh created the Fentanyl Victims Network to connect families impacted in the state.

“Every night I call five families because I want to talk to them,” Walsh said. “To collect these people and let them know that they’re not alone and they need to join us. We are stronger together.”

Read the full article on the CBS17 web site.

Bill calls for tougher penalties for opioid, fentanyl dealers

Additional coverage of this bill can be found on the following:

CBS17 Coverage of Family Summit

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Dozens of families from across North Carolina and beyond were together in Raleigh on Saturday, remembering loved ones who died from fentanyl poisoning.

“Matthew was my first grandchild, my first grandson, and I always called him my uno because he was my number one,” one woman said to a group at the Family Summit on Illicit Fentanyl Fatalities in North Carolina.

Family members said the names of victims and their forever ages.

“Jesse’s forever age is 26,” one mom said of a son she lost to fentanyl poisoning.

Families were crying together, hugging each other and remembering loved ones.

Read the article and watch the news segment on the CBS17 web site.

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WRAL TV5 Coverage of Family Summit

RALEIGH, N.C. — More than 40 families came together Saturday at the Public Safety and Justice Conference at NC State University.

Eight North Carolinians die each day from fentanyl poisoning, and over 13,376 died from fentanyl from 2013 to November 2022.

Barb Walsh, founder and executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, lost her daughter 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, to fentanyl poisoning. Now she’s trying to connect others who’ve lost loved ones to fentanyl.

“Other people who lost a child to fentanyl, or loved one, they shouldn’t stand alone,” Walsh said. “I felt like we would all be stronger if we stood together.”

Read the article and watch the video on the WRAL Tv5 web site.

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