Bystanders: Learn how to respond to overdoses and save a life

By Frances Ruth Harris
MILFORD — Pike County is offering residents free training in the use of Naloxone, an antidote that can bring an opioid overdose victim back to life.
The training will be offered at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11, at Pike County Training Center 135 Pike County Blvd., in Lords Valley. The snow date is Wednesday, Jan. 18.
A limited number of free training kits will be available on training day, said county Commissioner Matt Osterberg at the year's last commissioners' meeting.
Osterberg reviewed Pennsylvania's standing order for Naloxone, which is meant to insure that all residents at risk of opioid-related overdoses have access to the life-saving drug. Issued last October by Governor Tom Wolf and Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine, the standing order may be used as a prescription so that any third-party bystander may obtain Naloxone from a pharmacy. But anyone who may be administering the antidote is strongly advised to get training first. While not necessary, training offers protection from legal liability by showing that the person administering the dose acted with reasonable care.
The abrupt reversal brought on by Naxolone in opioid-dependent people can cause acute withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, sweating, abnormal heartbeats, fluid development in the lungs, body aches, fever, runny nose, sneezing, yawning, and general weakness.
Osterberg said 57 out of 1,000 children in Pike County are born addicted. Ten deaths a day occur in Pennsylvania because of addictive substances, he said.
Since Pike County doesn't have a hospital, he said, deaths are recorded in the hospitals where they occur.
Osterberg said the police in Pike County have Naloxone and are trained to use it.
Pyramid Healthcare will lead the training session. For more information call Jordan Wisniewski at 570-296-1960.