Thanks for that article Tamar and other comments in this stream. Naloxone could have saved my son's life. The other mitigating factor that we must speak to is that people have to be taught to recognize an opioid overdose situation and respond accordingly with Naloxone. That is where the training piece comes in.
The article refers to recognizing when it is "nodding off" and when it is an actual overdose situation. People need to know that putting somebody to bed to sleep it off is NOT what to do or throwing someone in a cold bathtub and all those other myths. This usually comes into play if it is youth, parents, loved ones or uninformed friends etc. BUT...it also comes into play with professionals.
Pete overdosed as an inpatient on a psychiatric ward. Another patient went out on a pass and snuck in their opioid of choice, the staff missed it, even with two warnings from me and Pete died of an opioid overdose alone in his hospital bed over the course of six hours before the fatal aspiration. (the autopsy proved that)
The nursing staff recorded that Pete was overly medicated and very drowsy and they helped him to bed and left him. In this hospital situation Naloxone would have been available if a 'crash cart' was called but staff did not recognize an overdose situation.
There were many mitigating factors but my point is that Naloxone on its own without the benefit of people actually recognizing an overdose situation won't be effective. We need to ensure parents, loved ones, friends, professionals in any demographic recognize an opioid overdose situation so they can administer the Naloxone they hopefully now will have with them.
Most of the other parents that I know that have lost their children to opioid overdose had it happen in their homes while their children were sleeping. Not only did the parents not know about or have Naloxone....they were not aware that their children were overdosing.
Other person’s loved ones who overdosed:
Being a peer support bereavement facilitator and doing what I do, connects me to other parents who have lost their kids to prescription opioids. I literally feel sick every time I hear about their children who have died......knowing that both education/awareness at the front end and Naloxone at the crisis point could have saved them all:
Here are a few examples:
1 & 2) The father who thought his 23 yr old son was sleeping in rather late into a Saturday afternoon. He thought he should check but then just dismissed it as being anxious. When he decided to check.....he found his son dead on the floor. He had been dead for many hours. As if that was not horrendous enough...six months later his son’s girlfriend also died of an accidental OxyContin overdose in the same way.
Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved their lives
3) The mother who woke up and wondered why her 22 yr old son had not come up from the basement to his bed yet. She dismissed it thinking that he was just pulling an all nighter. Late on the Sunday afternoon she wondered why her son had not been upstairs yet but again dismissed it because she felt he was sleeping in, given that he ‘stayed up’ all night. She found her son dead at his computer on a late Sunday afternoon. He had been dead for many hours. Again Oxycontin
Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved his life
4) The mother who heard a very loud thump in the bathroom but thought it was her 24 yr old son just banging around in the bathroom. She wondered if she should check but dismissed it. She felt she was just over reacting. After quite some time, her husband arrived home and she asked him to go and check. The door was locked and no response. When they broke down the door...there was their son...dead on the floor. He had been dead for quite some time. Fentanyl overdose.
Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved his life
5) The mother whose 23 yr old son’s alarm clock was going off. She did go into his bedroom and wondered if he had to get up for work or just had decided to take the day off and wanted to sleep in. She actually knelt onto her son’s bed and reached over him to turn off the alarm clock. She thought he was breathing a ‘little weird’ and snoring quite loudly but dismissed it as her being paranoid. She felt unsettled enough to mention it to her husband and he told her to stop fretting.
When they came home from work that evening they went upstairs to find their son dead in his bed. He had been dead for many hours. Fentanyl overdose
Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved his life
Those are just a few...sadly I could go on and on and on.....
In each case, most of the parents suspected their kids were using something. Did not even remotely suspect that it was prescription ‘medication’, did not know the dangers, the complexities involved with opioids, overdose signs to be vigilant of ...let alone that there actually was something they could have done to intervene in each of those overdose situations.
Betty-Lou Kristy
Lived Experience/‘Family’ Advocate- Mental Health, Addiction, Trauma & Bereavement