EDITOR’S NOTE: This report has been corrected to reflect that police administered medical treatment to the unconscious woman.
PORT ANGELES — City police may have saved a fourth person from a deadly heroin overdose by using an antidote that counters the effects of opiate drugs.
Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck and Officers Brian Stamon and Jared Tait were dispatched at about 7:45 p.m. Sunday to a report of a possible overdose at a city residence, where they found an unconscious and unresponsive woman with shallow respiration and a slow pulse rate, police said.
The woman was reported to be a heroin user.
“In these cases, just a minute matters,” Smith said. “We happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
Stamon administered a single dose of naloxone, which helps a person who is having an overdose breathe.
The officer waited one minute, then administered a second 0.4-milligram dose of naloxone via prefilled auto-injector.
Police gave medical treatment until fire department paramedics arrived minutes later.
The woman regained consciousness after receiving oxygen and was later able to stand and walk.
The woman was taken by ambulance to Olympic Medical Center, where it was determined she had used heroin.
The woman was not charged with a crime.
Grant funds
Port Angeles police secured 64 naloxone auto-injectors through a grant from Kaleo, a Richmond, Va.-based pharmaceutical company, in March.
Officers were trained by health care professionals on how to inject the antidote into a person’s muscle tissue.
Since naloxone has virtually no side effects, it can safely be administered on a person who is unconscious but has not taken drugs, Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke has said.
Port Angeles police first used naloxone to save a man who was having a heroin overdose April 24. Subsequent overdoses were reversed
May 2 and 11, police said.
Smith on Wednesday was preparing a grant application to the Department of Justice to fund replacement naloxone auto-injectors. Each pair costs about $250.
“We like this delivery system,” Smith said. “It’s safe and easy to use.”
Naloxone also can be administered intravenously or through easy-to-use nasal sprays.
While the Port Angeles Police Department was the first law enforcement agency on the North Olympic Peninsula to carry naloxone, emergency medical technicians have been using it for years.
The Clallam and Jefferson County health departments are expected to begin offering naloxone injection kits to heroin users and their families later this year through syringe-exchange programs.
The kits could be available as early as this summer in Clallam County and in the fall in Jefferson County.
The Clallam County Board of Health voted unanimously May 19 to distribute naloxone through the county’s Syringe Services Program in which drug users trade in dirty needles for clean ones.
Jefferson County Public Health Director Jean Baldwin has said her department is examining policy options and costs for a similar naloxone program.
Smith said police would support a broader distribution of naloxone.
“It’s like giving everybody a fire extinguisher,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter James Casey contributed to this report.
