Milwaukee County overdose deaths, record pace in 2021
MILWAUKEE - The U.S. government said overdose deaths reached a record 93,000 in 2020 – 20,000 more than in 2019.
That includes 546 such deaths in Milwaukee County, which is on pace to surpass that number again in 2021.
In 2020, Ly'Marita Cheeks lost her job taking care of the elderly. This past April, she overdosed at a Milwaukee motel and died days later.
"After losing her job from COVID, I think there’s where she spiraled and went downhill," said Lydia Hernandez, Cheeks' mother. "I miss her, and I just want everybody to know that regardless of her using drugs, that she was a good person. And with that she was a donor. I had her organs donated and she saved five lives, so even know she’s gone, she saved five people’s lives."
Cheeks' death was one of 228 drug deaths in Milwaukee County thus far in 2021. Another 90 suspected cases remain under investigation at the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office toxicology lab.
"Here we are halfway through the year and it looks like we will surpass what we did last year. So, we’re on pace for another record year," said Sara Schreiber, forensic technical director of the toxicology lab.
Ly'Marita Cheeks
The average age of a Milwaukee County overdose in 2020 was 44 years old. Seventy-one percent of those who died were men, 29% women, with 59% white, 28% Black, 9% Hispanic and 4% Asian or other. The highest number of deaths happened in the 53215 ZIP code.
"It’s not just a Milwaukee issue, it’s not a Milwaukee County issue, it’s not a state of Wisconsin issue. This is a nationwide problem if not a worldwide problem," Schreiber said. "Everybody is struggling with this in their own respective areas.
"It’s a struggle every day to see these kind of cases, because these are what we would consider a preventable death."
And 75% of Milwaukee County overdose deaths list fentanyl as one cause – including the death of Cheeks.
"I want my daughter to not be forgotten, and I don’t want her to just be a statistic. So that’s why I want to bring awareness of this deadly, silent killer that’s killing our children in the city of Milwaukee," said Hernandez. "I just don’t want her name to go in vain. I want her to be known as that good person, and that she just made a bad choice. She needed help and she wasn’t able to obtain that help."
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android.
Hernandez said she wants to organize other mothers against fentanyl, the deadly opioid that took her daughter's life.
Featured
Milwaukee police recover guns, drugs on city's south side
Two Milwaukee adults are in custody and a third is being sought by police after the execution of a search warrant on the city's south side on Tuesday, July 13.
Featured
$130M directed to Wisconsin workforce development
Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday announced that $130 million in federal coronavirus relief funds will be used to help address the state's worker shortage problem and assist unemployed people searching for a job.