LBPD officer saves heroin overdose victim
Officer used life-saving drug Narcan
A Long Beach police officer saved the life of a young man who overdosed last week by administering the live-saving drug Narcan.
On Thursday, May 22, just after 5 p.m., Long Beach police officers responded to a call reporting an overdose at an East Hudson Street home. There, officers found a 22-year-old male in the home, unconscious, with clammy skin, blue lips and fingernails and shallow breathing, LBPD spokesman Lt. Mark Stark said. Recognizing the symptoms of an overdose, police officer Darren Brennan administered Naloxene, or Narcan, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose.
“Knowing what it was, Brennan was able to use his training to make a save, instead of waiting for the fire department to arrive,” Stark said.
The young man was transferred to South Nassau Communities Hospital, and was reported in stable condition last week.
Two small packets of drugs were found in the house near the man. A field test by LBPD Det. Walter Munsterman verified that that the substance was heroin, Stark said. An investigation into the heroin recovered at the scene of the overdose is ongoing.
In recent months, the rampant use of heroin on Long Island has become more apparent, local officials said, and caused concern among residents in Long Beach, especially after two fatal heroin overdoses occurred in the same day this past February.
Training in the use of Narcan, usually administered in a nasal spray, has become more available, both to first responders and civilians. The Nassau County Health Department’s Heroin Prevention Task Force fought to have Narcan training made available to the public, and in March, County Legislator Denise Ford hosted a training session for the drug at the Long Beach Public Library.
Long Beach Police Commissioner Michael Tangney said that half of the force has undergone training, and he expects that the entire force will be trained in Narcan before the end of the year. Trained officers are provided Narcan by the department, and are required to carry it with them at all times, Stark said.
“It’s great that we’ve been afforded this training and that it’s worked,” said Stark, who added that parents or friends of heroin users who, in the past, may have covered up the drug use, are coming forward in an effort to help save their lives. “The fact that we’re more aware of [heroin use], it makes us more able to combat it.”
