DCSO deputy saves life with second dose of Narcan

Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies have used Narcan nearly 30 times this year to save the life of someone with a drug overdose, most recently on Wednesday afternoon, when it actually took a second dose to revive a woman who was not breathing, officials said Thursday.

A deputy was at a home in the La Pine area around 2 p.m., addressing count ordinance violations with a homeowner, when a woman in the home came out of a bedroom and reported another woman there was ‘down’ and not breathing,” Sgt. William Bailey said.

The woman said she’d suspected an opioid overdose and already administered a dose of Narcan (naloxone) to the unresponsive woman, with no apparent effect.

The deputy quickly summoned medics and went into the bedroom, assessed the woman’s condition and based on her observations, also suspected an overdose, obtained a second dose of Narcan from her patrol car and administered it.

“This dose had an immediate effect,” he said, and the woman began breathing again.

Without the second dose of Narcan, Bailey said it would have been 10 minutes before the first emergency medical personnel arrived on scene.

Each patrol car carries Narcan for such situations. Bailey noted Narcan has been available in the jail since 2015 and it was added to the patrol fleet in early 2016. DCSO deputies have administered Narcan 40 times during suspected opioid overdoses since 2015, both in the field and in the county jail.

“Addiction affects the lives of everyone and more so families who suffer a tragic loss from an overdose death,” Sheriff Shane Nelson said in the news release. “Our office deployed Narcan as a life-saving tool nearly five years ago and we have used it 27 times this year alone. In this national opioid crisis, my hope is that those who are saved after an overdose will take this second chance to change their life.”