43
Mill Creek MetroParks police recognized for reviving overdose victim
Park officers carry drug for overdose
YOUNGSTOWN
One evening late this summer, Mill Creek MetroParks police officer Dustin Strines was on a routine patrol when he got a call dispatching him to the Judge Morley Performing Arts Pavilion.
Upon pulling into the parking lot, Strines saw two people performing CPR on a man who was unconscious in the back of a van.
Normally a venue for the MetroParks’ summer concert series, on Aug. 23, the Morley was the site of a drug overdose.
“He is dying. He took heroin,” one of the men shouted to Strines, according to a police report.
Strines, joined by his supervisor, Sgt. John Novosel, quickly sprang into action, recalling the training on the use of overdose-antidote naloxone that, until now, the MetroParks police department had never had to use.
Strines pulled a naloxone kit out of his cruiser and shot a dose in the unconscious man’s nose. Novosel then administered a second dose of the nasal spray, which revived the man.
Just as the first man regained consciousness, however, one of the other men at the scene began to lose it. Both men were taken by ambulance to a hospital, and ultimately survived.
For their life-saving efforts, Strines and Novosel recently were recognized at a MetroParks board meeting.
None of the three individuals at the scene faced charges, because state law now, under certain conditions, protects people at the scene of an overdose from arrest.
Although the incident was not the first in which someone had been revived from an overdose in the park – other agencies have responded to calls before – this marked the first time that MetroParks police used naloxone to save someone.
All things considered, MetroParks Police Chief Jim Willock considers his department lucky in that respect. For some other law-enforcement agencies in the area – and across the country – overdoses are a regular occurrence.
Thus far, the park has remained relatively undisturbed by the issue, with some exceptions.
“Knock on wood, we haven’t had the volume” that other agencies have, Willock said.
The biggest drug-related issue that
MetroParks police deal with is discarded drug paraphernalia (such as used needles), which is especially concerning to them when it’s found in parts of the park such as playgrounds.
What could prove to be a challenge in the future is what many other agencies already are experiencing: Naloxone’s reduced effectiveness for overdoses caused by more-powerful opioids, such as carfentanil.
“I would say if we get multiple [people overdosing] on a more potent [drug], with what we carry, I don’t think we could bring them back,” Willock said.
For the situations they’ve so far dealt with, however, he says MetroParks police are prepared. Since 2013, each patrol cruiser has been equipped with a naloxone kit containing two doses of the medication, and every officer is trained how to use it.
“There’s no doubt, it’s an epidemic,” said Willock. “We’re fortunate that we haven’t seen it any worse here and that we’re prepared.”