It's becoming almost routine for Easton firefighters.
A call for an unresponsive person. Narcan is administered and the person wakes up.
"Frequently. Several times a month," Deputy fire Chief Kevin Arnold said Wednesday morning when asked how often the department administers naloxone in cases of opiate overdoses. It has been doing so for nearly a year, he said.
Just before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, firefighters revived a young man who was unconscious in a car in a parking lot on North West Street behind what soon will be Easton's new police station.
The man was alert as he got out of the silver sedan and was lifted into a Suburban EMS ambulance.
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Workers at the site -- there are two projects going on at once, the construction of the station and the rehabbing of the current building at 30 N. Fourth St. into an elementary school for the arts -- saw the man and thought he might be dead.
Easton police and firefighters responded just before 7:30 a.m. City police can also administer Narcan, Arnold said.
A city police officer was seen holding a syringe after the man was taken to an area hospital, but it wasn't immediately clear what the victim ingested that knocked him out, police said.
Narcan is given as "fluid atomized into the naval passages," Arnold said.
First responders check to see if the patient is breathing and the airway is clear, he said. If not, breathing is restored. Then they determine if the condition was caused by an opiate, Arnold said. Is there evidence of drug use? Is breathing reduced and are pupils pinpoints?
Then Narcan is delivered, he said.
The patients normally wake up without effect, Arnold said. Sometimes, since fentanyl is often cut into the heroin, it takes more of the Narcan to revive the victim, he said. If it isn't administered slowly, the victim can vomit, Arnold said.
"Normally we see the people on the street the next day," Arnold said. The glue from the diagnostic patches is still on their chests, he said.
"That's how bad this epidemic is," he said.
Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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