Woman dies, another in ICU after mass drug overdose at Gold Coast hotel
A woman in her 40s has died after going into cardiac arrest from taking a drug at a hotel in Gold Coast.
Emergency services arrived at a hotel on the waterfront of Surfers Paradise at 11.30pm on Friday to find seven women, who were all aged 43, struggling to breathe.
Paramedics attempted to save the life of one of the women but she died at the scene.
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Queensland Ambulance Senior Operations Supervisor Mitchell Ware. Nine
Two other women were taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a critical condition, one of which is in the intensive care unit and the other is now stable.
Four others were assessed and did not need further treatment.
It is unclear what drugs caused the suspected mass overdose, however, early reports have referred to the substance as a "drug cocktail," including ketamine, GHB or fantasy.
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One person is dead after a suspected mass overdose on the Gold Coast. Getty Images/iStockphoto
Queensland Ambulance Senior Operations Supervisor Mitchell Ware said Queensland Police would perform a toxicology report to determine type of drug that was ingested.
Ware said the medications paramedics suspected the group had taken often rendered people unconscious and stopped people breathing.
"If you don't get specialist care, you will die," Ware said.
Ware said they were on a night out but he was unsure of the events leading up to the incident.
"There is no such thing as a safe drug," Ware said.
"When people are obviously buying these drugs there is an element of risk," he said.
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"You don't know what's going into them… You don't know who's made them.
"You may be told one thing it may be something completely different.
"Anytime you take something that isn't prescribed there is obviously an element of risk to that."
He said the drug fantasy was a problem for the community Australia-wide.
"We haven't seen a downward trends, if anything, we've probably seen an increase," Ware said.
"We are going to these patients frequently… They also can become violent, you know predisposing our paramedics to occupational violence as well.
"These events are becoming far more to regular and they obviously occupy a lot of the ambulances' time."
Investigations are ongoing.
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