First responders talk about opioid overdoses and saving lives

• Keira McGuire
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Keira McGuire is a health reporter and multimedia producer for WITF. She hosts and produces Transforming Health television programs as well as other shows and documentaries for WITF’s Original Productions. McGuire produced the Emmy Award winning series HealthSmart for the last ten years. Keira previously worked at WBFF in Baltimore and WMDT in Salisbury as a reporter and anchor. She’s a graduate of Towson University.

First responders are on the front line of the opioid epidemic and have witnessed the devastation firsthand. Pennsylvania invested $5 million to arm first responders with naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug. That money provided police, EMTs and other first responders with more than 60,000 naloxone kits.

Joseph Stevens, the chief of York Regional Emergency Medical Services, says naloxone has been on his trucks for years, but the need for it has only increased. Stevens recalls finding a parent who had overdosed in a car with their two-year old in the backseat. He says first responders are passionate about saving with naloxone, but some grow frustrated after saving the same life multiple times.