by Tom Barrett | Jun 19, 2019 | Opioid Crisis
The drug overdose calls come in the middle of day and in the dead of night, in January and in July, from quiet suburban homes and busy street corners. They’re relentless. As an EMT, you’re first on the scene. You quickly assess the situation, perform a sternal rub and...
by Tom Barrett | May 15, 2019 | Opioid Crisis
In March of 2017, a 28-year-old Middletown, Ohio, man was found slumped over his steering wheel, unconscious from an opioid overdose. It took six units of Narcan — three times the typical dosage — for the local police to revive him. Later that same year, a...
by Tom Barrett | Apr 17, 2019 | Opioid Crisis
A 66-year-old cancer patient under hospice care was prescribed opioids for pain. That is, until his urine drug screen came back positive for marijuana and cocaine. Then his opioid therapy was stopped. Two days later, the patient was found dead due to a self-inflicted...
by Tom Barrett | Mar 20, 2019 | Opioid Crisis
Emma was prescribed Adderall for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when she was a sophomore in high school. Within a year, she was addicted. She started taking twice as much as she was prescribed. Then three times as much. Then a month’s worth in a...
by Tom Barrett | Feb 13, 2019 | Opioid Crisis
For a period of nine months, nurse anesthetist Anita Bertrand abused narcotics through daily injections which were intended for her surgical patients. Hooked on pain medication after an abdominal surgery, she even went so far as to install an intravenous port in her...
by Tom Barrett | Jan 16, 2019 | Opioid Crisis
“I believe in Narcotics Anonymous so much…It’s the only way for me. I’m not saying for you…but it’s the only way for me. …My NA sponsor was 13 years clean and relapsed. It took him six years to get back to NA. Now he’s three years clean.” –...
