Suspected drug overdoses at St Jerome Laneway festival

A young man is in intensive care in hospital after falling seriously ill at a music festival on Sunday with drugs suspected to have played a part. The man was one of three people to be rushed to hospital from St Jerome’s Laneway Festival yesterday.

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A young man is in intensive care in hospital after falling seriously ill at a music festival on Sunday with drugs suspected to have played a part.

The man was one of three people to be rushed to hospital from St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on Sunday.

St. Jerome's Laneway Festival yesterday

The man, aged is in his 20s, was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical but stable condition from the festival.

He is now in the Intensive Care Unit in a stable condition.

Two other men in their 20s were taken to the same hospital in stable condition.

A NSW Health spokesman said drugs are “likely to have been a factor” in each of the men needing to be hospitalised.

A NSW Health spokesman said drugs are “likely to have been a factor”

A woman in her 30s was also taken from the festival to Concord Repatriation General Hospital in a stable condition but it’s not believed she took drugs before falling ill.

Two of the ill have already been discharged from the hospital while the third is expected to be well enough to leave later today.

The festival was held at Callan Park in Rozelle and was deemed “high-risk”.

“NSW Health considers early transport to hospital to be very important as patients can receive timely high-level medical care in a hospital environment,” the spokesman said.

Due to the event being deemed “high risk” by the state government there were extra medical resources.

These included enhanced critical care teams, including a medical retrieval team which is one doctor and one paramedic as well as two other doctors and four nurses from Sydney Local Health District. There were also on site services provided by the event organisers.

NSW Health also provided 2,500 bottles of chilled water bottle and large volumes of electrolyte drink which were in addition to free water available on site.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal pone of the drugs believed to be involved in the overdose is MDMA.

NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

The condition of the young man that was in ICU has improved and this afternoon he was transferred to a general medical ward.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the latest near-death experiences were another reminder of the dangers of drugs.

“One minute it’s music and fun and then next minute it’s life and death,” he said.

“Out of the three people transferred by the medical retrieval teams to hospital two were believed to have taken MDMA and one another drug. Again, the message is MDMA can kill you. And we have three very lucky young people who our medical retrieval teams kept them safe.”

The special medical teams of highly trained emergency doctors and nurses at the festival are able to effectively paralyze festival-goers who have overdosed on drugs to keep them still and to action to reduce their internal body temperature.

They are also able to put a tube down someone’s throat to help them breathe.

“It’s extremely disappointing that as kids are taking their lives into their hands the NSW Labor Opposition is still allowing them to think they might actually back them with pill testing and other measures that tell them it’s okay to take pills, (Labor leader Michael) Daley should show some leadership and stop pussy footing around,” Mr Hazzard said.