NJ.com - Ocean Township police make Monmouth County's first heroin overdose save using Narcan

6/6/2014

Monmouth County Deploys Narcan
Ocean Township police used Narcan to save a 44-year-old woman who had overdosed. (Ashley Peskoe/NJ.com)
Ashley Peskoe/NJ.comBy Ashley Peskoe/NJ.com 
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on June 06, 2014 at 10:50 AM, updated June 06, 2014 at 10:52 AM

OCEAN TOWNSHIP –Township police have made the first overdose reversal in Monmouth County using the opioid antidote Naloxone, also known as Narcan, just one day after it was placed in the hands of the police officers.

At around 8:10 p.m. on Thursday night, police officers Zachary Rhein, Kevin Redmond and Randy Slawsky responded to a residence in the Wayside section of the township for a reported overdose, police said.

A 44-year-old woman was found unresponsive in the basement of the home and witnesses said that they believed she had ingested heroin, police said.

Redmond gave the woman a dose of Narcan while the other officers prepared other life-saving efforts and monitored the victim, Faller said. After three to five minutes, a second dose of Narcan can be administered if needed, Faller said, and at that time Slawsky administered a second dose.

The woman was able to sit up and talk to police officers after the second dose, Faller said.

Emergency responders credited Narcan for saving the woman’s life, police said.

“It’s incredible. You see someone who is as close to death as you can possibly can get and within minutes will sit up and have a conversation with you,” Detective Lt. Kevin Faller said. “It gives us the tool to save lives when we would used to have to perform CPR and other life-saving efforts until paramedics or EMS arrived who had that drug to administer.”

Faller said the police department received Narcan on Wednesday, and the kits are assigned to officers on patrol.

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“When the paramedics would use it, it’s nothing less than miraculous,” Faller said. “Now that we as the first responders have it, we can’t say enough about it. It has obviously worked and will in the future save lives.”

The save comes on the heels of an announcement on Thursday by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office that all police departments in the county are trained in using Narcan and most have been given the opioid antidote.

The prosecutor’s office has purchased 300 units of Naloxone using drug forfeiture funds and another 150 units are on order. Narcan has been distributed to most departments in the county, and the remainder will have it within the next week, authorities said.

In Ocean County, police officers have been carrying Narcan since the beginning of April, and authorities have reversed 34 overdoses as of Tuesday, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Al Della Fave said.