When Andy Astells saw his boyfriend overdose and collapse following a shot of heroin in the neck four years ago, he was terrified that it might be the end for his companion. It wasn’t, and an increasingly popular drug called Narcan, which is being used to combat potentially fatal opioid overdoses, may have been the life or death difference.
“When he fell to the floor I could not find a pulse, hear a heartbeat, or see him breathing. It was so very scary,” said Astells, 38. “I would say that the likelihood of him not living without receiving the Narcan would’ve been quite high,”
Astells, who had a Narcan kit on hand from the needle exchange in Olympia, then injected the medicine into the same vein in the neck of his boyfriend, Edward Cheleni, and actually had to use two doses.