While police officers might not carry it in the DC area, all ambulances do.
Naloxone goes by several names, and many D.C. area paramedics know it as Narcan. Prince George's County Fire and EMS has used the remedy for years.
"Narcan is a opiate antagonist. It's used to counteract the side effects of an opiate overdose," says Lt. Kristine Piazza with Prince George's County Fire and EMS.
Naloxone helps victims who have overdosed on drugs like heroin, morphine, Dilaudid, fentanyl, oxycodone, Demerol, codeine and methadone. Piazza says she has used the drug many times on patients in the field.
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This is literally a miracle drug treatment option. It practically brings OD victims back from the dead.
ReplyDeleteNow police officers have to be paramedics too?! Even an emt can't give narcan
ReplyDeleteI have witnessed just how fast and effective this actually works on someone who had OD and was basically unresponsive...miracle stuff! I think it wouldn't hurt for police officers to learn how to use it...save time waiting for ambulance and could save a life. If it can be administered through a nasal spray as mentioned in the article, that sounds easy enough for anyone to do.
ReplyDeleteWow I cannot believe your ignorance. How is a non breathing overdose victim to use a nasal spray?
DeleteBetter stock up in P.G. county , whole lotta stuff goin on there.
ReplyDeleteOk, this "we can't beat it so might as well feed it", way of thinking is getting out of control.
ReplyDeleteNarcan is not a, "no harm no foul", drug. Its use can cause seizures and vomiting. These are two things that you do not want. Are police officers equipped to handle an airway emergency following Narcan administration? Heck, just giving them tourniquets for the use on themselves and their partners took numerous hours of training and damn near an act of congress.
Narcan is a short lived drug once it is in the bloodstream. That means that its effectiveness will run out prior to the effects from the drug that the patient had overdosed on. The second "high" that patients get following the Narcan wearing off can me more profound than the first. This is why the drug is so often stolen from the back of ambulances.
If you want to limit the number of deaths from overdoses how about some better education about the drug you are prescribing. All to often patients are given a drug and told to take them three to four times a day. They do not know what the drug is for, how it works, and what will happen if they miss use the drug. When was the last time anyone reading this blog actually took the pharmacists consult when they picked up their medications? Once again the high paid doctors screw up and it is on the government funded emergency services who are strapped for funds anyway that have to clean up the mess and figure out ways to calm the beast.
Let the creeps die. Anyone who shoots poison into their veins should be billing tax payers to save them.
ReplyDeleteThis will be a self correcting problem.
Anon 6:04, some of your statements are factual however your dissent is way off the mark. Anon 6:25 you are simply ignorant. Addiction is an illness, a true disease. It is not a choice. Regardless of how the illness starts these people need professional help. If you disagree, it is simply because you are uneducated regarding this disease. No one intentionally overdoses yet 50,000 individuals die yearly from opiods. These people are sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers. Your average addict is not an unemployed street bum as Anon 6:25 so rudely proclaims. Putting Narcan into the hands of first responders would literally be a lifesaver for thousands. I would much rather save a life and deal with an unlikely seizure or vomiting then simply let someone's loved one die.
ReplyDeleteThose who chose to OD on opiates did just that chose to OD. I say give them a last kicker and make sure they dont recover. Problem solved. Narcon allows junkies to push it farther all the time. Why enable these people.
ReplyDeleteYep just take a hard look at Boston. Narcon just prolongs the life of junkies
I can only imagine what an ignorant, moronic bigot Anon 10:24 is.
ReplyDelete