Fairfield's Bravest Save Life with New Tool

FAIRFIELD, CT -- On Monday afternoon November 3rd at 1:24pm, Fairfield’s Emergency Communication Center received a 911 call reporting an overdose at a neighboring house not far from Fire Station 2 on Jennings Road. Fairfield Fire Engine 2 was dispatched along with Police and American Medical Response, with Engine 2 arriving first on the scene three minutes after the call to find an occupant unresponsive on the second floor reported by the resident to have taken heroin.

Finding that the patient was not breathing and had a weak pulse, and based on training received under the recently approved protocol from Sponsor Hospital Council of Greater Bridgeport, Engine 2 Lieutenant Patrick Barry and Fire Fighters Tom Keneally and Ron Petersen provided oxygen via Ambu bag and administered Narcan which had been distributed department-wide only weeks before in accordance with new legislation drafted by the Connecticut General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor last May.

Upon their arrival, AMR took over patient care, reporting that the patient was breathing on their own and becoming responsive in response to the medication. Fairfield Fire Department Medical Officer Jerry McGuire, Jr. noted, "To our knowledge, this was the first use of the new protocol and medication in the region. We’re proud to be on the leading edge in patient care by being among the first to complete training and get it on the apparatus. And now to see it successfully used in the field - that makes everyone’s efforts worthwhile.”

Public health commissioner Jewel Mullen said that giving first responders Narcan is a “progressive step towards stemming” the opioid crisis in the state. “An opioid overdose that is stopped by intervening with Narcan may be the beginning of a path to addiction treatment and recovery,” Mullen said. Governor Malloy has joined with other area governors and lawmakers to combat the rising level of addiction to and overdoses from heroin and other opioids in the Northeast.

At least 151 people died of opioid overdoses in Connecticut during the first six months of this year, according to the latest available figures from office of the chief medical examiner. The total number is a significant increase from the same period last year, which saw 92 people die of accidental overdoses involving heroin and other opioids, according to figures provided earlier this year by the state medical examiner’s office. Last year, 257 people died of accidental drug deaths involving heroin, and 109 people died of heroin use alone, according to figures released by the chief medical examiner, Dr. James R. Gill.