Haz-Mat Incident, Oct. 13

News release Coos Co. Sheriff’s Office.  On 10-12-2016 at about 3:00 AM, a Coos County Sheriff’s Deputy was called to a report by a 57 year old female that subjects were vandalizing her vehicle where she works as a caregiver at a residence on East Bay Road, North Bend.  The deputy checked but found nothing.  At about 5:30 AM, Deputies were called back to the same residence by the caregiver for a similar report.  On this occasion the deputies believed that the caregiver was having medical issues that may have caused hallucinations and she was transported to Bay Area Hospital for examination.  The caregiver was with her client, a 78 year old female that lived in the home on East Bay Road.  She checked by medical personnel and appeared to be fine and was left at her home. After this contact with the Caregiver one of the responding deputies began showing similar symptoms as the caregiver and had to be hospitalized.  A short time later the 2nd Deputy that had responded, the 78 year old resident and a hospital employee all showed similar symptom and had to be hospitalized. The Coos County Haz Mat Team responded to Bay Area Hospital and the residence on East Bay Road and has all involved quarantined while an investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the infections.  1:40 PM Updated Information:  As of 1:30 PM, 10-12-2016 the Hazmat Team has completed the check of the residences involved and no source of contaminate has been identified or found.   Initial investigations believed that a medication used in patch form may have been the source.  Investigation has found that all those patches and potential medications that may have caused the symptoms have been accounted for.  No source of the contamination has been found.  The vehicles, equipment and uniforms have been checked with no contaminates identified or located on or about them. Both officers, Deputy Doug Miller, a 4 year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office and Deputy David Blalack, a one year veteran, having just graduated from the Academy on Friday, have been cleared from the hospital and released with no restrictions. The medical officer was found to have been recently exposed to the flu and continues to display flu like symptoms and is being monitored.  Both the 52 year old female caregiver and her 78 year old female client are is still under care at the hospital. Investigation is continuing.