First responders across the region may start searching or restraining patients before delivering life-saving medication for drug overdoses in the wake of a deadly shooting.
Police and fire departments are re-examining their protocols after a man who received Narcan turned on first responders on May 15, fatally shooting an Appleton firefighter and injuring a police officer.
Paramedics rushed to Appleton's downtown transit center around 5:30 p.m. May 15 to tend to 47-year-old Ruben Houston of Wausau, who had arrived on a bus from Milwaukee. Houston was unresponsive and breathing abnormally, which prompted responders to treat him for an overdose by administering Narcan. Narcan, a brand name for naloxone, is a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. Authorities across the state have increasingly been equipped with the drug as communities struggle with the effects of addiction.