On March 27, Nurse Young, Bishop Gorman’s school nurse, spoke at the Substance Abuse & Suicide Awarness (SASA) meeting about how NARCAN (naloxone) can be used to save the life of someone experiencing an overdose.
NARCAN is a life-saving medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. It works by blocking opioid receptors in the brain, and it helps restore normal breathing in someone who has overdosed on opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, or painkillers. NARCAN comes in different forms such as a nasal spray and also a liquid form that gets injected into a muscle.
Nurse Young is a medical professional with years of experience dedicated to caring for others and helping save lives. Before becoming the school nurse at Bishop Gorman High School, she was an emergency care flight nurse, she worked within the country emergency room and she also participated in search and rescue and mountain rescue. Later she went to the fire department and worked on ground units in the valley.
Throughout the presentation, Young provided insight into what causes overdoses and how knowing how to use NARCAN is important in saving someone’s life. Majority of overdose cases are an accident because people are not aware that their product is laced with an opioid. One of the main signs that someone overdosed is unconsciousness or inability to awaken, if there is breathing difficulty such as choking sounds or gurgling noise. If the person suspects that they overdosed the next step is to call 911 and then administer NARCAN.
It is always better to administer NARCAN than to hesitate, as it safely reverses the effects of an overdose without causing harm. NARCAN is an antagonist, if you administer narcan to someone who has no trace of opioids it will not harm them whatsoever. “I think there’s a fear of using NARCAN like you’re afraid you’re going to hurt somebody, and that’s the one thing that’s most important. NARCAN is not going to hurt anyone, unless they have opioids in their system, and then all it’s going to do is take away their high,” Nurse Young said.
The main goal of the meeting was to ensure people understand that NARCAN is not harmful and to encourage them not to hesitate in using it, as it could save someone’s life.
