Statistics from the Kern County Coroner’s Office show the county has seen the most fentanyl-related overdose deaths since 2017.
- Video shows photos of man who died due to a fentanyl related overdose
- In 2023, the Kern County Coroner’s Office reports 297 people died due to a fentanyl-related overdose.
Hundreds of people in Bakersfield have lost their lives to fentanyl-overdose related deaths.
It’s an epidemic people across the nation hope to prevent by raising awareness on National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day.
Ellie Hartman will never be able to dance or laugh with her brother again, but she’ll always remember it.
“It’s all I have. It’s everything I have of him,” Hartman said.
Hartman remembers partying with her older brother, Dylan Harte.
She says she found Harte passed out by his bed the morning after a night of drinking in 2021.
“There was vomit, and I tried to get on top of him and give him chest compressions, but I wasn’t strong enough,” she said.
She says she called his dad and Harte’s little brother Cameron to help get into the room.