Opiates intoxication from

An increase in the number of deaths of all body packers in New York has been associated with an increase in deaths among opiate body packers of 50 deaths among body packers from 1990 to 2001, 42 were due to opiates (260). Four were related to cocaine and four to both opiates and cocaine. In 37 cases open or leaking drug packets in the gastrointestinal tract resulted in acute intoxication and death. Five cases involved intestinal obstruction or perforation, one a gunshot wound, one an intracerebral hemorrhage due to hypertensive disease,... 

The main hfe-threatening complications of heroin intoxication include acute pulmonary edema and delayed respiratory depression with coma after successful naloxone treatment. In a prospective study of the management of 160 heroin and heroin mixture intoxication cases treated in an emergency room in Switzerland between 1991 and 1992, there were no rehospitahzations after discharge from the emergency room and there was only one death outside the hospital due to pulmonary edema, which occurred at between 2.25 and 8.25 hours after intoxication (36). A literature review found only two reported cases of delayed pulmonary edema, which occurred 4 and 6 hours after hospitalization. The authors recommended surveillance of a heroin user for at least 8 hours after successful opiate antagonist treatment... 

Acute ingestion commonly causes gastrointestinal upset, variable CNS depression (confusion, disorientation, obtundation, and coma with respiratory failure), and occasionally hypotension with tachycardia and prolonged QT interval. The pupils may be miotic, and the presentation may mimic an opiate poisoning. Cardiorespiratory arrest has been associated with severe intoxication, and the morbidity and mortality from valproic acid poisoning seem to be related primarily to hypoxia and refractory hypotension. 

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