Brandon Twp.- Township firefighters used Narcan to save the life of a 24-year-old woman who overdosed on heroin last week.
According to an Oakland County Sheriff’s Office report, Brandon deputies and medics responded at 2:41 a.m., April 24, to a home on Burt Court to assist a woman who was unconscious with labored breathing. CPR was in progress by the woman’s boyfriend.
Upon arrival, the woman was found lying on a couch in the living room area of the home. Medics discovered a heartbeat and administered Narcan, generically known as naloxone hydrochloride, a drug that counteracts the effect of opiates such as heroin.
‘When a person overdoses on heroin, it shuts down their respiratory drive,? said Brandon Fire Chief Dave Kwapis. ‘Narcan reverses the opiate effect and allows the respiratory drive to kick back in and they start breathing on their own.?
In this case, that is exactly what happened. The woman regained consciousness and was disoriented, but in the ambulance admitted to using heroin that evening.
Kwapis estimated that township firefighters respond to about a dozen heroin overdoses in the township per year. Over the past three years, six of those have resulted in fatalities.
Narcan can only be administered if there is an existing pulse. Each of the Brandon Fire Department emergency vehicles are equipped with an EMS drug box through the Oakland County Medical Authority. Each drug box contains a variety of drugs including a cardiac arrythmia drug, epinephrine to treat anaphylaxis, and Narcan. Drugs are restocked when patients upon which they are used are delivered to the hospital.
In the event a patient has overdosed on heroin and the patient is clinically dead, medics may be able to restore a pulse through CPR or defibrillation, at which time Narcan can be administered, through an IV, nasally, or through an intramuscular injection.
‘If it’s been too long and the pulse is not there, there is a good chance you won’t bring them back,? Kwapis said. ‘Doctors are prescribing Narcan for families with known heroin addicts. There is a push for it because heroin is such a nationwide problem. It may be their only chance for survival in places where it takes 8 to 10 minutes for EMS to respond.?
While Kwapis supports prescriptions of Narcan to known heroin addicts, he believes the real solution lies in making the drug more difficult to obtain.
‘In the last three years, the amount of our responses to heroin overdoses has dramatically increased,? he said. ‘We sometimes can run on multiple heroin patients here in a week’s period. Some are the same patients, but a lot are different. It’s way too easy to get this drug.?
Even patients who have overdosed and nearly died return to their destructive habit and Kwapis said township medics have been on overdose calls where the patient literally had left a rehabilitation clinic only a few hours before.
‘You tell them they are lucky to be alive,? he said. ‘But they have a self-destructive personality. If they don’t want help, it’s like an alcoholic or anyone who has an addiction? it’s hard to help someone who doesn’t think they have a problem, or doesn’t want to recognize or deal with the problem.?
Kwapis advises anyone with a family member who is unresponsive or not cognitive of where they are or what they are doing to call 9-1-1 immediately.
‘At this point, it’s not who is going to get in trouble, it’s not about the police getting involved, it’s about who is going to live and who is going to die. They are lucky if we are notified early enough that we can make a positive change in their outcome, but they need to do something to prevent that from happening again. Everytime they use the drug, they are literally rolling the dice with their life.?
The woman was transported to McLaren Oakland by Brandon medics. Her boyfriend said she had been in the basement of the home, the door was locked and when she didn’t answer, he kicked the door open, carried her upstairs, and attempted CPR. He said he didn’t know what happened, because she had a problem with heroin about two years ago, but didn’t now and he ‘wouldn’t put up with her doing heroin.? He thought instead she might have had a guy downstairs and was cheating on him.
No drugs or drug paraphernalia was found. There was no damage to the basement door that was allegedly kicked. The woman’s 5-month-old son was left in the care of her aunt, who lives at a home nearby and whom the boyfriend had summoned by knocking on her window and telling her he was calling 9-1-1.
Suspected neglect of the baby was reported to the Family Independence Agency.