Kings Bay Sailors Died Days Apart From Overdose

2 US sailors die of apparent drug overdoses in same week at Submarine Base Kings Bay

By Michael Callahan, CNN

October 18, 2017

Washington (CNN)Two US sailors based at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia have died of apparent drug overdoses in the last week, according to a US Navy public affairs officer.

Petty Officer First Class Brian Jerrell, a sailor assigned to the Trident Training Facility, was found dead of an apparent drug overdose in his off base residence on October 12, Navy Cmdr. Sarah Self-Kyler said.

Four days later, Jerrell's roommate, Petty Officer Second Class Ty Bell, a sailor assigned to the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming was found dead of an apparent overdose as well, according to Self-Kyler.

A Navy official said the overdoses were a result of cocaine, but cautioned there is a toxicology report pending.
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Veteran Died of Fatal Overdose, While in VA Lockdown?

Widow wants to know how Marine got drugs before fatal overdose in VA lockdown

Boston Herald

Jack Encarnacao, Chris Villani 

Monday, July 31, 2017

The widow of a Marine who fatally overdosed on fentanyl while on lockdown supervision at the Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatric campus in Brockton is demanding to know how he got the drugs, while the VA has simply attributed his death to the nation’s larger opioid scourge.

‘WHAT HAPPENED?’ Jamie Lee Hasted, right, is seeking answers from the Veterans Administration after her husband, Hank Brandon Lee, left, died in March of a fentanyl overdose.

“Since he has passed, the VA has told us nothing,” Jamie Lee Hasted told the Herald in an emotional interview about her late husband, Hank Brandon Lee. “Answers, the bottom line is answers. ... Did he take it willingly, not willingly, mixed up in the medicine? You have video cameras, where is the video? What happened? Let me try to get some type of closure.”

Lee, a Marine lance corporal and mortarman who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, died at age 35 of acute fentanyl intoxication March 4 after he was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, according to his death certificate.

The day he died, Lee was found unresponsive by a nursing assistant and medication nurse in the day room of the inpatient psych ward. He “appeared to be sleeping sitting up in chair with head tilted to right, color ashen” when found, and didn’t answer when they called him, according to VA records reviewed by the Herald. First responders found him “unresponsive, pulseless,” according to fire department records.

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