Henderson County Emergency Management Services has seen firsthand the opioid epidemic in all the places you would — and wouldn’t — expect. From upper-class neighborhoods to parking lots and bathroom stalls, EMS is often the first called on to save lives.
The life-saving tool helping victims of the largest opioid epidemic in the nation’s history is Narcan or Naloxone, an opiate antidote. When someone is overdosing on an opioid, whether it be prescription or illicit, the medicine works to block the effects and reverse the overdose.
Mike Barnett has been director of EMS for the last six years. He has not only seen an increase in overdoses, but the amount of Narcan it takes to reverse one.