The incidences began, Komo News reports, when a 52-year-old woman was hospitalized after telephoning the police on October 12 to complain that her car was being vandalized. When the police arrived the car was intact and there was no sign of any malicious activity. Seeing that the woman was distressed she was taken to the local hospital for examination (the Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay).
The woman was discharged later that day. However, later in the day the two police officers who had escorted the woman to hospital, plus a hospital staff member started to experience hallucinations. These were of a similar type of the woman.
In addition to this, a 78-year-old woman, who lived with the first woman, also began to hallucinate, and she too was admitted to hospital. All four people were displaying similar symptoms. To add to this, the first woman again began to experience symptoms and was readmitted to hospital.
As a precaution, the emergency ward at the hospital was locked down on Friday October 14. These bizarre incidents raised the possibility of some type of airborne chemical compound being present in the home of the first woman to display the symptoms. However, a visit by a Hazmat Team revealed nothing untoward. In addition, blood tests of the five people have not shown anything unusual.
A statement by the Coos County Sheriff’s Office, reviewed by The Daily Telegraph, indicates: “Initial investigations believed that a medication used in patch form may have been the source. Investigation has found that all those patches and potential medications that may have caused the symptoms have been accounted for.”
The statement, attributable to Sgt. Pat Downing, adds: “No source of the contamination has been found. The vehicles, equipment and uniforms have been checked with no contaminates identified or located on or about them.”
The current situation remains that the cause of the hallucinations is unknown. However, both police offers — Deputy Doug Miller and Deputy David Blalack – appear to have recovered and they have been released from the hospital. The 52-year- old woman and the 78-year-old woman continue to show the same signs and remain in the hospital, as does the medical officer of the hospital, although the medical officer now primarily shows flu-like symptoms.
