Heroin overdose antidote to be more prevalent here
An antidote to heroin overdoses is becoming more readily available in Butler County and across the state.
Former Gov. Tom Corbett in September signed into law Act 139, which allows emergency first responders, including firefighters, police and EMTs, to administer Naloxone, often referred to by its brand name, Narcan, to people experiencing an opioid overdose.
The law also allowed friends or family members of at-risk individuals to get a prescription for naloxone as well as protection from prosecution for those reporting an overdose.
Gov. Tom Wolf last month expanded the ability for at-risk individuals to get the drug by asking state Physician General Dr. Rachel Levin to write a “standing order” that serves as a prescription for naloxone to any state resident who wants it.
The decision allows for pharmacies, if they choose, to offer the drug to people without a prescription.
Dr. David Rottinghaus, medical director of the emergency department at Butler Memorial Hospital, said the law can help people save lives before emergency responders can get to the scene of an overdose.
“A person can be saved by the medication before EMS get there,” he said. “It decreases the amount of time for an overdose to become deadly.”
Butler Fire Chief Nick Ban said his department has not started carrying the drug, but said it is something that will be considered in the future.
Ban said his department and the Butler Ambulance Service responds to overdose calls regularly.
“It happens a couple times per week,” he said.
Rottinghaus said every ambulance service in the county carries Narcan.
Maria Finn, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police, said troopers in three troops across in the state have started carrying Narcan.
But Finn said there is no timetable for when the troop in Butler will the drug.
She said every patrol trooper eventually will have it.
