Library Lends Life-Saving Tools

Shrunken pupils, shallow breathing and blue nail beds are signs that someone may be overdosing on opioids — and cues that more New Haveners may now be able to pick up on, thanks to a library-hosted class educating the public on how to intervene in such situations.

Around 20 people gathered at the Ives Main Library at 133 Elm St. Wednesday night for a lesson led by local behavioral health clinic BHcare on how to recognize an overdose and administer Naloxone, better known as Narcan, to reverse it. 

The training took place as local overdoses are on the rise, and as City Hall seeks harm-reduction-focused ways to keep alive people struggling with addiction.

“Narcan training is not just for those who might be living with or a family member of somebody who might have a substance use disorder, but to have an understanding that accidents happen every single day,” BHcare prevention coordinator Lorrie McFarland told her students and attendees at the library workshop.

Over the course of the workshop, McFarland, who specializes in substance abuse prevention among middle and high schoolers, explained the history of the opioid epidemic while instructing attendees on how to help someone experiencing an overdose.

She said that the opioid epidemic, which can be traced back to the late 1990s, surged in Connecticut in the 2010s when doctors started canceling opioid medications in hopes of eliminating their patients’ dependencies, inadvertently prompting more people to start searching for prescription medication and heroin on the streets.

In 2013, fentanyl made up of chemicals manufactured in China started circulating in the heroin drug supply, she said, so dealers could save money and increase sales. 

“Heroin comes from a poppy plant. You have to wait for crops to be growing, to be dried, to be processed, to be shipped,” McFarland said. ​“Months for heroin; two days for fentanyl from China.”

Most users were unaware that the heroin they purchased was laced with fentanyl. Synthetic fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, and can induce an overdose in just three milligrams compared to 30 milligrams of heroin. Roughly 90 percent of all the overdoses in Connecticut that are fatal are caused by fentanyl being added to either heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine.

Because counterfeit drugs and supply on the street is often laced with fentanyl, users can’t be sure that what they’re buying is what they’re looking for, leaving them susceptible to an opioid overdose.

Naloxone is used to treat opioid overdoses. The most common brand of Naloxone is Narcan. Naloxone is a short acting medication that can reverse an opioid overdose by stealing the spot of opioids at the brain receptor site, allowing people to regain consciousness and recommence breathing. The effects of Naloxone last between 30 and 90 minutes, enough time for a person to recover before emergency personnel arrive. Naloxone expires within 18 months and it should be stored in moderate temperatures not in the refrigerator and not in direct sunlight.

If you see someone experiencing the symptoms listed above — pinpoint pupils, trouble breathing, or bluish nails — McFarland suggested trying to rouse the person by calling their name and eliciting a pain response by rubbing their sternum or pinching them hard under their elbow.

If that doesn’t work and the individual remains unconscious, you should dial 911 immediately. Administer rescue breaths by laying them down and tilting their head upward and slightly pinch their nose so that air you breathe in doesn’t escape.

Then, sit them up and use the full dose of Narcan on one nostril before laying them down in a recovery position. If they don’t respond or wake up after 2 – 3 minutes, sit them up and administer the second dose of Narcan in the other nostril. Before laying them down again in the recovery position.

Nathalie Garcia, 30, who attended Wednesday’s workshop, told the Independent after the training that she believes there should be more preventive workshops held to increase community awareness about widespread susceptibility to opioid overdoses. 

Garcia, 30, said she attended the event because of her background in public health. She works as project manager at the Odonnell Company, a consulting and marketing agency that creates social media campaigns for public health efforts and organizations.

“It happens by mistake, it happens on purpose, but you just need to be ready and know how to take care of yourself and others,” Nathalie Garcia, who attended Wednesday’s workshop, told the Independent.