Nov. 02--Gloucester has seen more than its fair share of deaths from heroin overdoses. Now, local police and firefighters have a new way to deal with them.
Starting this week, Gloucester became the first city in Massachusetts to have both police officers and firefighters carry nasally-administered doses of Narcan, a drug that temporarily reverses an overdose induced by opiates like heroin. Police and Fire officials say the drug will save them precious seconds in reviving and treating people undergoing an overdose.
Families of opiate addicts have had these nasal doses available to them for several years. But now, through a partnership between Gloucester's Police and Fire Departments and the Healthy Gloucester Collaborative, the city's first responders will have them too.
It's another tool responders have to help keep people alive, said Sander Schultz, the Fire Department's Emergency Medical Services coordinator. Shultz said doses of the nasally administered drug will be in city ambulances and fire engines. Police Chief Michael Lane said those doses will be in the police cruisers as well.
"If we get a call, like we so often do," Lane said, "we'll pull up and instead of waiting for the (rescue) squad to get there, we'll use it."
The doses come from a Department of Health pilot program, and Gloucester is the third city to join up with it. Revere and Quincy are the other two cities to participate in the program, said Lane.
Joan Whitney, substance abuse co-ordinator for the collaborative, said her organization and the city's public safety departments joined up in April. The departments have been training with it since. Gloucester, she said, has two times the overdose rate, per capita, of nearby cities.
"We saw that in the community this was an important need," she said.
Before the departments trained to use the nasal Narcan, they relied on Advanced Life Support ambulance, and paramedics. The ALS ambulance, said Shultz, used an intravenous line to administer it.
Narcan, in whatever form, isn't a permanent solution to an overdose, he said. Narcan blocks an opiate from latching onto brain cells, and shutting down the body's respiratory system, among other things. Though Narcan blocks the opiate, it doesn't last as long. Without proper treatment he said that person will relapse back into an overdose.
"They have to go to a hospital," said Shultz.
Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.
Copyright 2011 - Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.
