Pennsylvania Firefighters Receive Narcan Training

Belle Vernon fireman Joseph Dzurko took the nasal applicator from a kit and sprayed the mist into the nose of the training mannequin at the Monongahela Valley Hospital as he practiced how to administer what can be a life-saving antidote to someone who has overdosed on heroin or another opiate.

Dzurko, an assistant fire chief, said it was important for members of his fire company to have the training in administering Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, because of the widespread problem with drug overdoses. The medication blocks the adverse affects the opiates have on slowing or stopping an overdose victim’s breathing, helping to revive them.

“We have six to 10 overdoses a year in the borough of Belle Vernon. It’s everywhere,” said Dzurko, who was accompanied by about a dozen Belle Vernon firefighters at the training session.

Dzurko and his fellow firefighters were among about 35 first responders from Washington, Westmoreland and Fayette counties who recently underwent training conducted by Linda Zidek, coordinator of the pre-hospital services at the Carroll Township hospital.

“Your goal is basically to get them back to breathing,” said Zidek, a public health nurse, told the police and firefighters. “It’s been used many, many times” to save people, she added.

Zidek taught first responders how to recognize when a drug user has suffered an overdose, how to use a Narcan kit and the nasal applicator to administer the Narcan and care for the patient until medical personnel arrive on the scene.

“It is so simple. It’s good to have the hands-on training,” which has what the online training can’t offer “” practicing how to administer the nasal spray on a mannequin, Zidek said.

The training is invaluable, especially for a community that is served by two ambulance services from nearby towns, said George Farquhar, a Fayette City firemen.

“I know people who might need it at some point,” Farquhar said.

While naloxone has been available for about 40 years, Zidek said it was the passage of Act 139 in November 2014 that opened the path for police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians to use the life-saving prescription drug if they get trained on using the nasal spray.

Under the law, the first responders are protected from criminal prosecution and civil liability if they act in good faith and with reasonable care in administering the opiod overdose reversal antidote.

About 2,400 Pennsylvanians died from a heroin and other opiod overdose in 2013, according to the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. That’s the leading cause of accidental death in Pennsylvania, killing more people than motor vehicle accidents, the state said.

There were 51 drug overdoses this year in Westmoreland County, 21 of which were heroin-related as of Aug. 8, and 29 possible overdoses, according to the Westmoreland County Coroner’s office. The county had 87 drug overdose deaths last year, one more than the record number in 2013.

In Washington County, there have been 208 overdose deaths since 2011, said Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone.

The kits contain two dosages of Narcan, the brand name for the antidote naloxone; a device to spray the Narcan into the nasal passages, gloves and a face shield to protect the first responders in the event they give “rescue breathing” to the victim, Zidek said. The kits cost about $70.

Carroll Township Police Officer Mike Fendya knows firsthand that the Narcan kits can be used to save a drug overdose victim’s life.

Fendya, who also has been a paramedic for 21 years, administered Narcan on June 29 to an unconscious man at a Monongahela residence who had taken a few stamp bags of heroin. When Fendya arrived, the man was straining to breathe and was not responding to painful stimuli, Fendya said. After he administered a 2-milligram dose of Narcan up both of the man’s nostrils.

“Not a minute later, he was responding to voice commands. Thirty seconds later, he woke up,” Fendya said.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” said Fendya, who was the first police officer in the county to use naloxone to revive an overdose victim and was able to get there before the ambulance, Fendya added.

Most of the Carroll police officers and some of the Donora officers have had the training, Fendya said.

It is important for police to have the training in Narcan use because in these cases of opiate overdoses, “we get there first because we’re always on the road,” Fendya said.

In Rostraver, Chief Greg Resetar said he is not opposed to police administering Narcan to heroin overdose victims, but has concerns about it and is taking “a wait-and-see approach” to having his officers trained and using Narcan.

An officer could be at risk giving an overdosed opiate user the Narcan because people respond differently to the antidote and some could become violent when revived, or could vomit or aspirate “” inhaling vomit or blood when unconscious.

Municipalities that get the Narcan kits through grants may incur costs when it comes time to replenish the antidote, Resetar said.

The Southwest Regional Police, a Belle Vernon-based police force covering municipalities in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties, plans to get the Narcan kits, said John Hartman, chief of Southwest Regional Police.

Hartman said he expects to get the overdose antidote kits from Vittone’s office and anticipates obtaining the training for the department’s officers in the near future.

Vittone said he has used about $7,000 in from money confiscated from drug dealers to fund the purchase of the first batch of Narcan kits.

“It’s really been well-received,” Vittone said.

Vittone said he is going through the process of applying to the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association for money for the Narcan kits.

Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com