Suspect ODs after arrest
County may be stuck with costly air ambulance bill
Staff writer
A drug arrest last week could end up being more costly for the county than for the the suspect arrested.
Gregory Mancuso, 52, Herington, arrested for allegedly having minute amounts of drugs in his car, apparently ingested a large amount of narcotics before arriving at the jail, Sheriff Rob Craft said Tuesday.
Mancuso was rushed to St. Luke Hospital, then airlifted from there to Via-Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita — a costly trip that the county may have to pay for.
Jailers and deputies noticed within 20 or 30 minutes of his arrival at the jail that Mancuso showed signs of distress. He appeared to be overdosed, Craft said. Deputies summoned emergency medical services.
Craft said jailers did not use an anti-narcotic drug on hand at the jail because Mancuso appeared to be too overdosed for the drug to be effective.
St. Luke summoned Lifeteam to airlift Mancuso to St. Francis, where he was admitted for 31/2 days while deputies stood guard at the hospital.
When Mancuso was discharged from St. Francis, deputies brought him back to jail, where he was booked in on suspicion of possession of marijuana, another controlled substance, and drug paraphernalia.
He bonded out four and a half hours later.