BREMERTON — While everyone from medical personnel, social workers and public health policymakers struggle to grasp the breadth and threat of the ever-growing opioid epidemic, one particular group has potentially the most to lose.
First responders often respond to calls with little or no solid information on a patient’s condition and are forced to perform triage on the fly to determine a safe course of action.
For addicts using drugs like illicitly-manufactured fentanyl (IMF), which could prove deadly dangerous.
Fentanyl is produced in a laboratory, and is 100 times more potent than heroin. It is, however, a legally manufactured drug with legitimate medical purposes, so it is considered a controlled drug. Emergency medical technicians carry it in their vehicles because, given in tiny micro-doses, it is an effective anesthetic for severe trauma.
It is also frequently used by street chemists as filler instead of heroin, simply because it is cheaper than good-quality heroin.
Addicts usually have no idea of the true chemical makeup of what they’re sticking into their arm, and there is no such thing as street testing. In the case of IMF, that can be fatal.
IMF is 100 times more potent than its legally manufactured relative. (Carfentanyl, a street opioid that has no legitimate human application, is 100 times still more potent.) The way that correlates is that a grain of IMF the equivalent in size to a single grain of salt can be fatal if ingested, inhaled or simply transferred through incidental skin contact. If a first responder is trying to treat someone suffering from an overdose and has to guess at what they’ve taken, it can be deadly.
For many years, law enforcement officers and EMTs have donned sterile rubber gloves before handling a sick person. Because of the danger of a glove being pulled off, torn or suffering a cut, many now carry several spare sets.
“I usually have three extra pairs in my pants pocket,” said Scott Wilson, a Kitsap County Sheriff’s deputy.
The state’s public health department is developing a kit that will allow first responders to treat overdose victims safely and effectively. To be distributed through the county sheriff’s offices, it will help first responders’ peace of mind — and it will save lives.
One of the most important tools is a simple, water-based nasal spray called Naloxone, made exclusively under license to the FDA by a company called Narcan. Naloxone counteracts the effects of an opioid overdose nearly instantly.
“It works like magic,” said Bremerton Fire Dept. EMT Rob Ashmore. “Often the addict will suddenly sit upright after a few minutes and ask what’s going on, like nothing happened. Then they get angry and violent because we ruined their high.”
Bremerton EMTs already keep the kits in their vehicles, and before too long, all first-responders will carry it. Someday, Ashmore said, it will save the life of a lifesaver.
“It’s going to be standard equipment,“ said Ashmore.
Mark Briant is a reporter for the Bremerton Patriot and Central Kitsap Reporter and can be reached at mbriant@soundpublishing.com.
