TAYLORSVILLE — A 42-year-old man unconscious from a suspected heroin overdose was saved Thursday night, thanks to a Unified police officer.
Three weeks ago, Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder announced every patrol officer will now carry a dose of Narcan with them while they're on duty.
Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, is an opiate antidote that helps people who have stopped breathing due to an opiate-related drug overdose start breathing again.
About 7:15 p.m. Thursday, emergency crews were called to a residence near 1900 West and 4600 South for an unconscious man who had shallow breathing and was suspected to have overdosed on drugs, said Unified Police Lt. Brian Lohrke.
A Unified police officer was the first emergency responder to the scene, beating paramedics. When the officer found the man, he gave him the Narcan, which is administered as a nasal spray.
Just a short time later, "he woke up out of the unconscious state," Lohrke said.
When paramedics arrived, they transported the man to a local hospital in good condition.
Lohrke said having Narcan is just one more tool officers now have available to them to give basic first aid to patients.
"We know how to add pressure to a wound to stop the bleeding. In an overdose, we know we can deliver this and it'll be safe," he said. "We're very happy that this was able to be used. This is something that we want to be able to deploy when we run into situations like this."
Lohrke said among the many benefits of Narcan, it can be administered when an overdose is suspected, but doesn't result in any side effects if the patient isn't actually suffering from that.