I Saved a Woman’s Life Today with Narcan
I am too shook up to edit this story
I saved a woman’s life today with Narcan (naloxone). A story I never thought I would be posting. It just happened a half hour or so ago and I’m a little shook up. The reason I am not editing and fixing this story is that maybe today you might save a life.
She was unresponsive and passed out. For reasons I won’t detail now, I suspected an opioid overdose. My neighbor called me about her. I hung up and grabbed my backpack for the Narcan I have been carrying in my backpack for a good six months. I shook her hard and yelled Hey Hey, but her head just lolled over. I couldn’t lay her flat, she was dead weight and I saw no signs of breathing.
So I stood there and counted to 60 waiting for her chest to rise. I was scared because I didn’t know if it would harm her if it wasn’t an opioid overdose. But I was panicked about lack of brain oxygen.
Without knowing exactly, I put it in her nose and pressed the plunger. I had read the instructions long ago and remembered that sometimes it takes two doses so I opened the second one. I waited for what seemed like forever but was less than 30 seconds. She woke up just as I was going to insert a second dose.