Authorities in Arapahoe County are crediting the opioid-blocker naloxone — known by its trade name Narcan — with reviving an overdosing man and woman on Friday during the first week sheriff’s deputies deployed the life-saving drug.
Julie Brooks, a spokeswoman for the county sheriff’s office, said deputies and other responders used Narcan on the pair after they were found unconscious and barely breathing in a vehicle on the 4200 block of East Arapahoe Road.
The man and woman were discovered by investigators called out on reports of a vehicle swerving before abruptly coming to a stop. Deputies found suspected heroin inside the vehicle and then gave Narcan to the man while personnel from Littleton Fire Department gave two doses to the woman.
“Both were transported to an area hospital,” Brooks said in a news release. “Information from the hospital indicates that the Narcan doses administered at the scene significantly contributed to both people surviving. A variety of drugs were found in the vehicle and this remains an active criminal investigation.”
She said both are expected to survive.
Brooks said all Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office patrol cars began carrying doses of Narcan, a nasal spray, in mid-September.
Previously, detention centers had access to the treatment.
Facing a surge in opioid abuse and related overdose deaths, Colorado authorities have launched a plan to distribute the life-saving drug to first responders across the state’s hardest hit areas. While Arapahoe County wasn’t included in that 2,500-dose initiative, agencies in other metro area counties, like Adams and Clear Creek, are slated to get the drug.
The heroin and prescription opioid problem has been exaggerated in rural areas, where there are fewer treatment resources. Authorities say that’s why the program, called the Colorado Naloxone for Life Initiative, includes Baca, Bent, Crowley, Delta, Dolores, Jackson, Las Animas, Otero, Phillips and Sedgwick counties.
Opioid use has reached crisis levels across the nation, including in Colorado, where heroin overdoses are up almost 350 percent in the past five years, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA says heroin has become its main focus in Colorado.
Authorities say someone in Colorado dies of an overdose roughly every nine and a half hours and the rate of opioid deaths has surpassed that of traffic fatalities.
