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- We asked a former paramedic what it’s like to administer naloxone, the lifesaving drug overdose reversal medication that the US Surgeon General recently advised friends and family members of people at risk for drug overdose to carry.
- The drug can be administered as a nasal spray or a shot that’s injected into the muscle and goes into effect within minutes.
- Here’s how naloxone works and what you should know about how to use it.
Former New York City paramedic Alex Pollack can’t wipe the vision from his memory: A young woman at a concert had gone down. She was on the floor, barely breathing, a circle of worried strangers closing in around her. Thanks to his 18 years taking 9-1-1 calls, Pollack knew what to do. He took out a container of Narcan, the brand name for the fast-acting drug that can help to reverse an opioid overdose, and administered it. In seconds, the girl was awake and breathing normally.
“It’s amazing to see how well it works,” Pollack told Business Insider. “You take someone who’s almost not breathing, you think they’re dead, you give them this and they pop up.”See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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SEE ALSO: A deadly drug epidemic sweeping the US has caused ER visits for overdoses to jump 30%
