SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y. — After opiate overdoses nearly doubled last year, a N.Y. county pilot program with an overdose antidote has been found to have saved 23 lives in its first 10 weeks.
An education and training chief for the Regional EMS Council in Suffolk County said that the 23 people were found barely breathing and unconscious until they were administered Narcan, or naloxone, according to Newsday.
“We have had phenomenal success with intranasal administration of this medication with no less than dramatic lifesaving incidents,” said police department medical director Dr. Scott Coyne.
The nasal drug can reverse the effects of heroin and other opiates.
The goal of Suffolk County’s pilot program is to have widespread use of Narcan by EMS personnel. The effort has been in the works since 2009, but because of policies only allowing advanced EMTs to give the drug intravenously, it failed.
With the current pilot program, the now available nasal spray version of Narcan can be administered by EMTs with basic training, Newsday reports.
The program was launched July 1 with 21 area ambulance companies.
Suffolk County suffers from an increasing overdoes problem. There were 217 opiate-related deaths in 2011, with 53 deaths were reported in the first three months of this year.