Quincy Police Officers With Narcan Save Life of Potential Drug Overdose

Quincy Police Department officers equipped with Narcan resuscitated an individual that was unconscious from a likely drug overdose early Friday morning. Officers arrived within a minute to a medical call that reported an unconscious person with irregular breathing.

According to Chief Keith Siebert, officers realized it was a probable drug overdose and administered two doses of Narcan and started chest compressions. After roughly three minutes of chest compressions, another dose of Narcan was administered.

"Fire and EMS arrived and they took over chest compressions. After about a minute longer, the subject started to blink and slowly regained consciousness," said Chief Keith Siebert. "Narcan is a great tool for helping us save lives of opioid overdoses, which we seem to be seeing a lot more of it."

According to Chief Siebert, a neighboring police agency has also seen an increase in opioid overdoses with their supply of Narcan almost completely out for 2021 after receiving the medicine in February.

Naloxone, sold under the Narcan brand among others, is a medicine used to block the effects of opioids. It's ommonly used to counteract decline in breathing in opioid overdose. Opioids include heroin of illegal drugs, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and legally available painkillers with medical prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin ®), hydrocodone (Vicodin ®), codeine, morphine and many others.