2 Investigators: Why Aren't More Cops Carrying Naloxone?
(CBS) -- Every three days someone living in the suburbs dies from heroin. A medication that can reverse an overdose from heroin, and other opioids, is being carried by some first responders but not others.
CBS 2's Dave Savini investigates in this Original Report.
The medication can be administered by shot or easy-to-use nasal spray and can almost instantly stop a potentially deadly overdose. With police officers often arriving first on the scene, should they all carry it?
It is amazing the 23-year-old Dan is still alive. He twice overdosed on heroin.
"I wasn't conscious and I wasn't responding to anything," said Dan.
He was saved by naloxone, also known as Narcan, a drug that can instantly reverse a heroin overdose.
In high school, when he first tried it, Dan thought he was using Oxycodone. It actually was heroin and he got hooked.
"I would say December, my senior year then I was doing it every day," said Dan who went from being an A and B student and soccer player to a heroin addict.
"I liked it immediately," he said.
He would meet his drug dealer at a gas station off the Eisenhower near Independence. Then on the highway, one day on his way back home, he overdosed. Police were first on the scene, but they did not have naloxone so they had to wait for paramedics.
Time is critical because naloxone is not foolproof. Dan thinks he got lucky, "Very lucky."
"Can be life or death," said Dan.
He says since police officers often get to the scene first, they too should carry naloxone. More departments are, especially in DuPage County where more than 2,000 officers are now trained to administer it including Westmont Police.
New Year's Day, Westmont Police Officer Timothy Radtke used naloxone, and CPR, to save a 20-year-old woman.
"She was up and talking before the fire department arrived on scene," said Radtke.
Tom Mulhearn is his police chief.
"You're talking seconds and those seconds saved that person's life," said Mulhearn.
But other counties and departments have yet to jump onboard. One issue is funding says Kane County Coroner Rob Russell, who sits on a heroin task force.
"We need about a thousand units in Kane County to equip the rest of the first responders," said Russell. "I think they under budgeted how much they actually needed. The response was huge."
Even though they can get naloxone from the health department, in Lake County, several police departments are not using it, including Waukegan, Gurnee, Wheeling, North Chicago and Lincolnshire.
"I guarantee if they can start doing it, they will save lives," said Dan.
In the last year, DuPage and Lake counties alone had 54 lives saved by officers administering naloxone. Of those saved, 63% were 19 to 29 years old.
"I think all the police departments should have it personally," said Dan.
Waukegan and Lincolnshire police are taking steps to carry naloxone. In Wheeling and many other cities, including Chicago, only the fire departments carry naloxone.
Since last year, the Chicago Fire Department alone administered it 955 times.
This medication can help with other opioid, or pain medication, overdoses. Pending state legislation would make it easier for parents, addicts and others to get the drug and keep it just in case.
