Jona Ison | Chillicothe Gazette

RCI was the site of a mass casualty incident that sickened at least 20 people.

Robert McGraw and Matthew Berry, Chillicothe Gazette

Robert McGraw/Gazette

CHILLICOTHE – Hannah Riehle went to Ross Correctional Institution Wednesday expecting for her 2-year-old daughter to see her father.

But when a corrections officer told her something was going on and her boyfriend wasn’t coming because the yard was locked down, she left, but not without anxiety.

“When I walked out and saw all those squads, you know I started freaking out, like this is my kids’ dad,” she said, going on to describe how scared she felt, wondering if he was going to be okay.

The ambulances were at the prison to help take 28 people to the hospital after they were exposed to an unknown substance.

Robert McGraw/Gazette

According to the Ohio Highway Patrol, Wednesday’s incident appears to have begun with an inmate exhibiting signs of a possible overdose and, as was later reported, 27 RCI staff had potentially been exposed to an unidentified substance.

The victims were taken to Adena Medical Center where chief clinical officer Dr. Kirk Tucker later said only the inmate arrived unconscious and was admitted. RCI staff were all treated and released after a period of observation. It's unclear how many were administered naloxone or how many doses.

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Based on the symptoms presented and the positive response to the overdose reversal drug naloxone, Tucker said it was consistent with exposure to fentanyl.

“The ones who were sickest were the ones who responded to the inmate’s bedside,” Tucker said.

The inmate is in stable condition in Adena's intensive care unit where Tucker expects him to "be just fine."

No official word was given on what the substance was that started the incident.

Could have been worse

Tucker didn't immediately know how many people were given naloxone or how many doses, but he said all staff were experiencing a "clinical recovery" within about an hour but were kept for a period of observation.

Matthew Berry/Gazette

While the incident was serious, Tucker said it could have been a lot worse. He and Adena CEO Jeff Graham both lauded the quick response at RCI, and of first responders, and at least 100 Adena staff who mobilized the hospital’s disaster response.

“The fact a critical incident was identified so fast there and EMS with the capability of delivering the reversal agent, no doubt, in my mind, saved lives today,” Tucker said. “Short of having that, you have to know how to intubate people, control their airway and breathe for them until this thing wears off. I really did anticipate a lot worse.”

Quick reaction

Emergency crews from more than a dozen different departments from multiple counties arrived at the prison to take patients to the hospital and the Ross County Health District also took extra doses of naloxone to the hospital in case they were necessary.

Scanner traffic indicated doses of naloxone were taken to the prison and at least 300 doses of naloxone were at RCI if needed, Sellers said. Tucker said the Ohio Department of Health also delivered 600 doses of naloxone within the first hour or two of the incident.

Also as a precaution, the Unioto schools, which are adjacent to the prison property went on a cautionary lockdown, but the V.A. Medical Center continued operations as normal. Ohio 104 between Moundsville Road and Ohio 207 was closed for a short period.

Thirty-one inmates housed in the building where the incident took place were removed from the cellblock and taken to other areas of the prison. Before a hazardous materials unit began to clean the area, samples of the substance were taken for testing as part of the investigation.

Still wondering

Riehle said she hasn’t gotten any updates on whether her boyfriend, Marquze Jacobs, is OK or was involved in the incident.

“She loves her daddy,” Riehle said of the two-year-old daughter she carried on her hip. “She would freak out if she lost her daddy.”

She said Jacobs has been in RCI for two months and has about two years left on his sentence.