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Opioid epidemic weighs on emergency medical workers

6 min read
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Kerry McCans entered a career as a paramedic at a time when heroin and other opioid overdoses were reaching epidemic proportions.

She’s 21 years old and, she said, treating overdose victims has been part of the routine at Washington Ambulance & Chair the entire time she has worked there. Some of the hardest days have arrived when she’s administering the opioid antidote naloxone to women close to her age.

Where To Get Help

  • Washington Drug & Alcohol Commission Inc., 90 W. Chestnut St. ~ third floor, Washington Pa., 800-247-8379, Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. www.wdacinc.org
  • Gateway South, 375 Valleybrook Road, Suite 102, McMurray, Pa. 724-941-4126
  • Greenbriar North, 1840 Washington Road, North Strabane Township, Pa. 724-916-0192
  • SPHS Care Center, 75 E. Maiden St., Washington, Pa. 724-228-2200
  • Turning Point II, 90 W. Chestnut St., Suite 510, Washington, Pa. 724-222-7500
  • Wesley Spectrum Services, 90 W. Chestnut St., Washington, Pa. 724-222-7500
  • Greenbriar Treatment Center, South Strabane Township, Pa. 800-637-4673
  • Abstinent Living at Turning Point, 199 N. Main St., Washington, Pa. 724-228-2203
  • Abstinent Living at Turning Point, Julie’s House for women with children, 14 W. Walnut St., Washington, Pa 724-228-2203
  • The Lighthouse for Men, 1820 Washington Road, North Strabane Township, Pa. 724-531-6930
  • The Lighthouse for Men, 1633 Weirich Road, Canton Township, Pa. 724-222-4763

(Source: Washington Drug & Alcohol Commission Inc.)

“They look like me or my sister,” McCans said.

She said she’s fortunate to have a family with members who also work in emergency services and they can talk each other through work-related stress.

Ambulance workers, police officers and firefighters have become central to the battle to save the lives of drug overdose victims, and they witness life and death at its worse.

But many of the first responders who answer those 911 calls feel a sense of futility, as they can revive people who overdose, but they can’t do much more for them. They distribute to the survivors a small flyer that lists the names, addresses and telephone numbers of places where they might be able to find treatment options.

“You know in your heart that you’ve done something,” said Frank Dourlain, an EMT and paramedic at Ambulance & Chair.

“As first responders there’s not much we can do about it,” added Jim Rankin, a paramedic/supervisor with the service.

The number of overdose calls are on the rise at Ambulance & Chair, whose coverage area includes 27 municipalities. As of September the service had logged 207 such calls this year, said Rodney Rohrer, manager of the ambulance service. It handled 159 of them in 2015 and 280 last year.

“The (Pennsylvania) counties that have an aggressive Narcan approach seem to be doing better,” Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone said.

He said the county has experienced 82 accidental drug overdoses this year as of Oct. 21, a similar number to what was recorded at that time last year. He said there was a spike of such deaths in November and December that took the number to 106 in 2016.

Many counties in the state are experiencing three times the drug overdose deaths this year as compared to 2016, said Vittone.

Washington County has nearly 2,000 naloxone kits in the field, he said.

“I think it’s bringing our numbers down,” he added.

First responders tend to see an increase in drug overdose calls when a new stamp bag identification comes along, Dourlain said.

“It’s almost as if the addicts are standing in line for the next batch,” Dourlain said.

And, the victim’s identity can be surprising because some EMTs know the person they are treating has a job, spouse and children, he said.

“It could be someone you just walked past in a grocery store and you never suspected a thing,” Dourlain added.

The work is taking its toll on the mental health of first responders, according to a 2015 article published by The Journal of Emergency Medical Services. It reported then that a survey of more than 4,000 first responders revealed that 6.6 percent of them had attempted suicide – a rate more than 10 percent higher than that among the general public.

“It’s beating them down, and it’s an ongoing issue,” said Zach Seery, a supervisor at the service.

Ambulance & Chair has counseling services available to its employees, Rohrer said.

“You get the repeat overdoses – three times in one day, the same person – it’s somewhat frustrating to them,” Rohrer said. “But they’re here to save lives.”

Rankin recalled “one gentleman we brought back several times,” probably middle-aged.

“I actually felt bad for him because he was in chronic pain,” Rankin said.

The man either couldn’t afford pain medication or couldn’t get a prescription for it from a doctor.

“After about the fourth time, he succumbed to it,” Rankin said.

“Unfortunately, at some point, the patient loses the battle,” added Billie Morris, owner of the service.

Health and law enforcement professionals often push back against the stigma surrounding addiction, saying it compounds the opioid epidemic.

Ambulance and Chair EMT Chris Lander said the same stigma comes back on first responders who treat people who’ve overdosed – something that is not fair “because they don’t understand what we actually have to do.

“(Some people say,) ‘You’re not fixing the problem, you’re helping the problem,'” said Lander, who also is a captain in the Slovan Volunteer Fire Department. “No, we’re not. We’re doing our jobs.

“It’s ridiculous,” he added. “The public doesn’t realize if we don’t help someone, how much trouble we could be in. 911 calls – we have to go.”

Lander said on one recent call he answered for Ambulance & Chair, the patient was a woman who’d just come home from a rehab program.

“(She) had just gone to one of her drugs-anonymous meetings, came home that night and overdosed,” he said.

The crew transported her to the hospital and hasn’t seen her since, he added.

“I feel the system’s broken,” Rankin said. “That’s pretty much what it comes down to is the system being broken,” he added. “And you can’t force anybody to get help.”

McCans said she has only encountered one incident where she feared she would be assaulted by an overdose victim in her care. The man was supposed to enter drug rehabilitation that day, but instead he ingested 11 stamp bags of heroin.

“He said he was going to jump out of the ambulance,” McCans said. “He threatened to hit me. He wanted me to give him his drugs back.”

She said those kinds of experiences are what irk first responders because “you’re trying to help them.

“This is about saving people’s lives,” she said. “I don’t think anyone has the answers.”

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