Grim county data reveals sobering number of preventable deaths

A deep dive into the Berkeley County Coroner’s 2024 Annual Report may not be your typical summertime reading, but it does reveal an unflinching look at a reality humans instinctively try to avoid: death.

 

The 19-page report from Coroner Darnell Hartwell’s office – released in May – provides a striking and, often, sobering insight into how people lost their lives in Berkeley County last year and, perhaps more importantly, data that might give the living pause.

 

“The goal of providing this information to the public is to increase public awareness of the role of the coroner’s office,” Hartwell said in the report, “and to focus attention on the causes and manners of death in our county in an effort to reduce the number of preventable deaths to the extent possible.”

 

BY THE NUMBERS

The mission of the coroner’s office is to determine the cause and manner of a person’s death upon notification, whether it be unexpected, unexplained, suspicious, violent, or unknown. The report also states that the coroner’s office does its investigations independently of other law enforcement agencies that may also be investigating the same case.

 

In 2024, 1,944 deaths were recorded in Berkeley County, and of those deaths, the coroner’s office investigated:

• 1,200 were natural

• 133 accidental

• 38 by suicide

• 20 by homicide

• 7 undetermined

 

Digging deeper, a striking commonality linked the majority of the 2024 homicides.

 

The report stated, of the “20 deaths classified as homicide in Berkeley County, 19 were attributed to gun violence, and one was blunt force trauma. This is an 11% increase from 2023.”

 

ACCIDENTAL DEATHS

Reducing the number of accidental deaths has been a priority for the Berkeley County Coroner’s Office.

 

In the report, it states the office “cares deeply for the community it serves,” adding, “It is the coroner’s desire to support the community through outreach, prevention, and education.”

 

It listed 133 deaths as accidental in 2024. 

 

The office said almost 30 percent, or 38 deaths, were the result of motor vehicle accidents.

 

But car accidents were not the leading cause of accidental deaths in Berkeley County.

 

Unsurprisingly, almost 40% of the accidental deaths, the coroner’s office said, were drug-related, killing 54 people.

 

Those drug-related numbers are one reason why the county created the Berkeley County Overdose Review Board. 

 

The mission of the board, which is made up of members from the coroner’s office, law enforcement, EMS, health care industries, and community leaders, is to reduce overdose deaths by raising public awareness and by reviewing overdose fatalities to see where an opportunity for intervention might have been missed.

 

One approach to reduce drug overdoses is the recent installation of Naloxboxes across Berkeley County.

 

The boxes, installed in public and widely traveled areas, contain naloxone nasal spray, which can be used as a life-saving medication to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

 

Funding for the program comes from a $26 billion national opioid settlement, from which the county just received its 2025 installment of $707,968 earlier in June.

 

The county plans to distribute the funds to eligible organizations and nonprofits that “work directly on the front lines of the opioid epidemic and/or assist in opioid addiction recovery or preventive services.”

 

SAVING LIVES

Despite the dark nature of the job, the coroner’s office puts a priority on strategies to save lives – either by education, reducing preventable deaths, or recovering organs for patients awaiting a transplant.

 

When an eligible donor is identified, the office notifies Sharing Hope SC of an opportunity that might lead to an organ donation for transplant candidates.

 

In 2024, the report said 12 bodies were released for organ donation.

 

Of those released, seven became actual donation cases with 28 organs recovered, which resulted in 36 lives saved.

 

Similarly, 190 tissues were recovered and donated from the deceased donors, which resulted in the enhancement of 825 lives.