CBS
SALISBURY, Mass. — Police and investigators with the Essex District Attorney’s office are looking into whether a Salisbury woman died from the opiate-based painkillers doctors gave her after treating her for a heroin overdose.
Police say 44-year-old Gretchen Fordham crashed her car into a tree on an Interstate 495 ramp Sunday night. They charged her with driving under the influence of drugs, her second such offense. But because she needed medical help, instead of taking her into custody, they sent her to Anna Jacques Hospital.
There, police say she was given the heroin overdose drug Narcan, and was also treated for a broken wrist. Police say doctors sent her home with an oxycodone prescription, which she filled at a 24-hour pharmacy on her way home.
Read full story: Doctors Give Salisbury Woman Painkillers After Heroin Overdose