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Watch as heroin addict comes back to life from overdose thanks to emergency shot

neversickanymore

Moderator: DS
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This is a little older but since the issue hasn't been addressed and I couldn't find it I posted it..

Watch as heroin addict comes back to life from overdose thanks to emergency shot

In a video taken by addiction outreach volunteers, a 29-year-old woman is revived from a heroin overdose with a shot of the drug Naloxone.
BY TRACY MILLER / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS



This dramatic video shows the moment a heroin addict regains consciousness after a near-fatal overdose.
In the clip, obtained by CNN, a 29-year-old heroin user named Liz is revived using the drug Naloxone, administered via syringe.

Liz, from Greensboro, N.C., was brought back from the brink by two addiction outreach volunteers, Adam Wigglesworth and Louise Vincent.
"We were noticing a blueing of the lips, lack of oxygen, so her breathing had become quite shallow," Wigglesworth says of Liz in the video.

"Once someone's not breathing and they're not responding to any sort of stimulus, you give them breath. At that time I usually administer Naloxone," Vincent, who provided the video to CNN, explains.
In the video, the two administer "about 60 units" of Narcan, a brand name for Naloxone, to Liz. After a few moments when she is still not responsive, they give her a second shot.

Amazingly, Liz's eyelids begin to flutter and she is able to mumble words.
"You overdosed. Can you sit up?" Vincent is heard saying.


he drug could potentially be used to treat overdose of prescription opioids, such as oxycodone, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta said, but to do so effectively would mean putting it in the hands of more non-medical professionals, a move Gupta called "controversial."

To confirm the video's authenticity, CNN showed it to four emergency room doctors, all of whom agreed that this is what a patient typically looks like when revived with the drug.


Fans of the movie "Pulp Fiction" will recall the scene in which Uma Thurman's character overdoses on heroin and is revived using an "adrenaline" shot administered to her heart. Adrenaline, or epinephrine, is used to stave off severe allergic reactions but would not generally be used for a heroin overdose.
Naloxone works by freeing up receptors in the brain that are blocked by drugs like heroin. If a drug user blocks too many of the brain's receptors, he or she may stop breathing.
Liz, who began experimenting with drugs at age 11 and is the mother of a 19-month-old daughter, has since checked into rehab, according to CNN.
"I can't believe somebody cared about me enough or loved me enough to bring me back," she said.


http://www.nydailynews.com/life-sty...n-addict-back-life-overdose-article-1.1506518
 
"I can't believe somebody cared about me enough or loved me enough to bring me back," she said.

Consider yourself lucky Liz, because most people would have probably sighed in relief once they knew for certain you had died from an overdose.

Out of sheer recklessness and an obsessive desire to numb my pain away, I've ended up overdosing myself on more than a few occasions, and I'll forever be grateful to those who did not abandon me when I needed them the most.

Most of the comments I read below any given online article having to do with the death of an individual from a suspected street drug overdose are so cold and heartless that it makes me wanna spew.

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Edit - Here's an example of a comment (this one is actually mild) that really ticks me off, particularly the first sentence:

Gretchen Tyree

90 days ago
"And they brought her back, why? Do I hope she can become a productive citizen? Yes. Do I think she will? No and for that I am sorry."

Perhaps it would be for the best if people like Gretchen Tyree personally get to experience what it's like to live in the shoes of an anxious, depressed, childhood-traumatized, chronic-pain ridden heroin addict.

IMO, it is so inhumane to attach a price tag to a human life. And for that reason, it should be considered a crime for a biased (but lucid and capable) person - such as a drug prohibitionist - to purposely allow a stranger who is overdosing nearby to die without attempting to alert the authorities.

Too radical of an idea? So is the fact that I am supposed to pay a debt to partly fascist society because I chose to consume psychoactive constituents of a couple of plants.
 
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If my last name was Wigglesworth, I would have to change it.
 
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