Orange County Sheriff ’s Office saves lives with overdose cure

When the Orange County Sheriff ’s Office began using an antidote for opioid overdoses two months ago, some deputies had their doubts. But after seeing the results of the lifesaving drug play out in Orange County, skeptics are turning into believers.

Since the Sheriff’s Office began outfitting 700 deputies with naloxone nasal spray July 21, they have used the medicine on 11 people, Lt. Parks Duncan said at the Sheriff’s Office’s 2016 Crime Summit on Wednesday.

It cost the Sheriff’s Office about $27,000 to equip all deputies with the drug that reverses the effects of opioids such as codeine, morphine and heroin. Naloxone restarts the breathing process slowed by an overdose and temporarily inhibits the drug’s interaction with the brain.

“When Sheriff [Jerry] Demings authorized [naloxone], he said this is well worth the price if it saves just one life,” Duncan said. “I can tell you, we’ve done more than that.”

The first save happened just 13 days after Duncan distributed the first batch of naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, to a group of patrol deputies. Deputy Aaron Jenkins saw a woman passed out in a yard Aug. 3 and immediately recognized overdose symptoms, Duncan said.

Jenkins approached the woman’s boyfriend, who told him the woman was sleeping. When she didn’t wake up, Jenkins used the nasal spray, reviving her before medics took her to a hospital.

“I knew at some point I would use my Narcan,” he said. “I think everything worked out. I guess she was lucky we were in the area.”

Officers from the University of Central Florida and Orlando police departments also began carrying naloxone this year. In the Orlando area, about 1,600 law enforcement personnel are equipped with the drug, said Dr. Chris Hunter, director of Orange County Health Services.

Hunter said at least three naloxone deployments in Orange County were “very, very much life-saving” and revived patients near cardiac arrest.

But the drug did have one unexpected side effect: an increase in deputy morale. Duncan said he’s seen the dramatic results change the minds of deputies.

One deputy recently told Duncan he was skeptical of naloxone being lauded as a lifesaving tool. That is, until Sept. 10 and 11, when he administered the drug to two patients back-to-back.

Since then, Duncan said, the deputy reported feeling as if he had made a positive impact in his job.

“After two deployments, he’s positive he saved two lives,” Duncan said of the deputy. “It empowered him to feel he could make a difference in somebody’s life.”