A Durango Police Department officer is being credited with saving a man experiencing an opioid overdose late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
The driver of a white station wagon drove off the road and nearly rolled the vehicle over a 8- to 10-foot embankment in the 1500 block of Main Avenue.
The driver, who police did not identify in a Facebook post describing the incident, was found barely breathing and slumped over the steering wheel of what appears to be a Subaru Outback.
The Durango Police Department did not respond to a phone call requesting comment.
Officer J.J. Rouanzoin, who found the unconscious driver, suspected the person to be under the influence opioids and administered Naloxone, a drug commonly referred to as Narcan that is designed to reverse the effects of opiates. The driver regained consciousness after the drug was administered.
Narcan is a nasal spray that, once administered, binds to opioid receptors in the brain, blocking drugs from binding and reversing an opioid overdose.
“Durango Police officers carry Narcan, and they are trained to recognize the signs of an overdose, which include unresponsiveness, respiratory failure and pinpoint pupils,” DPD wrote in its Facebook post.
The driver was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Police did not specify when the incident happened, whether charges were filed or what hospital the driver was taken to.
Reader Comments