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Training needed on drug to reverse heroin overdose

Joye Brown

July 24, 2008

There's a way to reverse a heroin overdose. And it's been available to addicts, their families and friends, in New York State, since 2006.

Yet there's nowhere in Nassau or Suffolk counties for nonmedical personnel to learn how to use the lifesaving drug, Naloxone, advocates say.

And yesterday, I could discern no good reason why.

The training alone would serve up a reality check for an addiction medical experts say is hard to break. And maybe offer families, and friends, something other than fear and helplessness when a loved one turns to heroin.

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It's been four weeks since Natalie Ciappa's heroin-related death. The Massapequa teenager has been followed by the deaths of other heroin-using teens. It's an outbreak of teen heroin use, experts say, that education can help keep from becoming an epidemic.

There's been some progress:

Yesterday, the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency said calls more than doubled after Newsday told Natalie's story.

And Mom and Dad - who, in this column last week, said they had no choice but to get an order of protection against their heroin-addicted son - checked in yesterday to say their boy's gone back to rehab. And that they're crossing their fingers, hoping that this time he'll make it.

But there's more out there; more that can be done to help families navigate the hell of a child's addiction.

Let's turn to Naloxone, which is also called Narcan.

It comes in injectable or aerosol form. And, used quickly, reverses an opioid overdose. The victim wakes in three to five minutes; and the drug's effects last for 30 to 90 minutes, time that can be used to get the victim to a hospital.

New York State's health department's Web site has a terrific explanation of the drug and how it works. (The address is below.) But what's equally important is the requirement that anyone who wants to administer the drug gets training.

They will learn how to recognize an overdose:

Blue lips or nails; victims breathe slowly or not at all and can't be waked, even if you yell their names or rub your knuckles on their breastbones.

They will get a primer on opioids, with a list, that includes morphine, codeine, Percodan, Percocet, Vicodin, Dilaudid. And, of course, heroin.

There's also a second list, on what can lead to an overdose. It includes: using drugs alone; mixing drugs with alcohol; using drugs without knowing their strength.

According to Caroline Rath, opioid overdose prevention program coordinator of the Harm Reduction Coalition, there are 28 community-based and other programs across New York State that train lay people how to use Naloxone.

None of them are in Nassau and Suffolk. And, in calling a few programs on Long Island, I could find no one yesterday who knew about the training.

"I was invited to do this overdose prevention training once in Suffolk County, and I trained about four people," Rath said. "I had been hoping to train many more that day."

About 3,500 people have been trained statewide, she said. And the coalition has reports of about 275 overdoses being reversed, although Rath said the group believes there may be many more.

"We once had a young man, who had witnessed his brother overdose before, drive six hours one way for this 15-minute training and to get the Narcan, then turn around and drive six hours home," she said.

"He was that desperate to find anyway to help his brother not die from an overdose," she said, adding, "Many of the responses from your readers indicated a similar desperation."

Want help?

The state's Department of Health, at 212-417-4770, can direct you to a training. The department's Web site, which explains the program: www.health.state.ny.us/diseas es/aids/harm_reduction/opio idprevention. The coalition's Web site is www.harmreduc tion.org.