The Fentanyl Crisis and the Fairview Viewpoint
With the Hudson Valley’s Fentanyl crisis skyrocketing, the Fairview Fire Department in Dutchess County shares some stories and information regarding Narcan treatment and overall aid as first responders.
Fire Lieutenant Robert Ridley and firefighter/EMT Jason Lomoriello explain that depending on what substances recently hit the streets determines the number of calls or volume of overdoses that the department gets called out to. Ridley states, “We have a good, steady run of nothing happening. Business as usual, and then it’s literally like a batch comes in. It’s cut with certain amounts of fentanyl, and the overdoses just — it’s literally like watching people, or you hear it on the radio just dropping.”
Addiction to hard drugs is life-threatening, usually having individuals searching for a better and better high. This leads to people consuming or overconsuming narcotics that contain harmful chemicals. As for fentanyl, it continues to be added to hard drugs by people selling them to make money or convince people of a more potent product, which many addicts are chasing.
Lieutenant Ridley says, “Fentanyl has definitely become more prevalent in the past couple years. When we have someone who is showing signs of an opioid overdose, and we give them the Narcan, and they’re still blue, and then we do it again, and you are on your third dose, and then they are starting to come to, that’s when you know oh they have some ‘good stuff’”. Narcan has one purpose — it reverses the effects of the drugs and revives the user.
Pharmacies have begun providing over-the-counter Narcan nasal spray. Lieutenant Ridley says, “Overall, the fentanyl is just that much more pure, and for someone who has an addiction because this is an addiction problem, we are giving life through the Narcan.” As this epidemic continues, Narcan is a prominent life-saving product in all overdose cases. The responders use both types of the drug: air Narcan, but if the patient is not breathing, they use the injection Narcan. The Fairview Fire District has been around since 1910, and previously because fentanyl, heroin, and other hard drugs were not as prevalent or as big of an issue as they have grown to be now, Narcan treatment was not even a part of the typical training. Lomoriello recalls, “Previously, we never had to teach somebody how to give Narcan, so now it’s normal that people just carry this stuff around in their pocket now. It’s more common than people carrying, you know, EpiPens and insulin.” Now that the pharmaceutical industry has stepped in and allowed access to the product, many users have acquired it.
First responders are often faced with addicts who will refuse to share what led them to the point of overdose. Even more frightening is there is no follow-up care for those affected; Lieutenant Ridley explained, “Now they are using these narcotics, they are overdosing, we come in and intervene and save their life, but there’s no follow-up care for them. No getting them to a rehab program and just all the support care that goes with it.” Addicts are not seen further than receiving emergency aid, sadly leading to repeat offenses. This also leads first responders like Ridley and Lomoriello to get called out to the same person or people repeatedly and sometimes within the same week.
The responders experience the fentanyl crisis first-hand quite often. They are dedicated to helping, and as Lomoriello says, “One thing you’ll learn about people in this business is we’re all Type A personalities. You throw a problem at us, and we want to solve it even if it’s impossible.” However, even being the most focused, helpful people in overdose scenarios, first responders are also subjected to personal worries and protecting themselves.
Addiction is a crisis — it consumes and takes over many lives; as Lomoriello says, “Regardless of your social or economic status, it is not exclusive to one group anymore. It’s across the board.” Addiction can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, which is why it is a growing concern. If people want to get involved and help in some way, Fairveiw’s website has a link to stay involved and volunteer at the location.
