Suburban High School Trains Nurses To Use Auto Injectors To Combat Heroin Overdoses
(CBS) -- Nurses at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire will be one of the first to use injectors to counteract heroin overdoses.
"They're called Evzio injectors. They work just like EpiPens which are used to reverse the effects of allergic reactions," said Stevenson High School spokesman Jim Conrey. "These can be administered through the skin with a simple puncture. Our nurses will receive training next week."
Conrey says in the 22 years he's been with the school, they've never had a heroin overdose but it's better to have the antidote just in case.
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"We might be a little bit ahead of the curve, but you're going to see more and more Illinois schools using this in the future," he said.
Four of the auto injectors will be kept on campus in two nurses' offices, with the campus police officer and in the office of the school's substance abuse prevention coordinator. Conrey says police departments have been using the devices for months, why not school districts?
"According to the Lake County Opioid Initiative, in the last year, 33 lives have been saved in Lake County by law enforcement officers who've been using these devices," he said. "We hope we never have to use them here at Stevenson, it just makes sense to have them available."
The injectors were donated by an anti-heroin organization, founded in the name of a Stevenson graduate who died of a heroin overdose in 2008.
"They're not terribly expensive," Conrey said. "The organization was founded by the family of Alex Laliberte, a 2008 Stevenson graduate who died of a heroin overdose. His sister is the executive director of the Live4Lali organization and is doing a wonderful job of working with schools to raise awareness and to make available these devices."
Last week, the state board of education approved rules that allow, but don't mandate, schools to administer the antidote in emergencies. It's part of Skokie State Rep. Lou Lang's heroin legislation that became law in September.
