Eight people are in critical condition after a suspected drug overdose at a Melbourne rave on Saturday night.
A large number of attendees at Hardmission Festival at Flemington Racecourse reportedly became seriously unwell after taking what was believed to be methylenedioxyphenethylamine, an MDMA derivative. At least nine people were treated by paramedics at the scene.
“What appears to have happened is quite a number of people have overdosed or had a reaction to an MDMA derivative drug,” Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill told the ABC.
He said seven of the patients were placed into an induced coma and required breathing tubes.
“It’s quite a high-level treatment that our paramedics perform and it’s reserved for our most time-critical patients and patients in life-threatening health conditions,” he said.
“It’s probably quite rare that we would see this amount of people needing such aggressive treatment.”
The patients were transported to a number of hospitals including Sunshine Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Austin Hospital, Footscray Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital.
Ambulance Victoria regional and clinical operations director Vanessa Gorman said the patients suffered from serotonin syndrome.
“They all had very high temperatures over 40C and they all presented with acute cardiac symptoms which is why they all needed that life saving support through the intubation and transport through to hospital,” she told The Herald Sun.
Gorman said a combination of the drug, dehydration and extreme heat could have all played a part in the incident.
Police are investigating the incident.
More to come.
