The man is trembling, sitting on the bed in the spare motel room down by the highway. Sometimes, these rooms are filled with the patient’s worldly belongings, but this room seems to only have the bed, a dresser, a chair and the TV. The man is in his late fifties, a portly man with white […]

The man is on the nod, the only thing keeping him up is the fence he is leaning against. When the police officer tries to extricate him from the fence, he falls back and the officer has to lower him to the ground. I set my red bag down to get out my ambu-bag, but […]

Does access to naloxone influence an opioid user’s decision to use? That is the crux of a recently published (on-line) economics paper, The Moral Hazard of Lifesaving Innovations: Naloxone Access, Opioid Abuse, and Crime, which argues that increasing access to Naloxone sanctions risky behavior, unintentionally increases opioid abuse, leads to greater crime, and may increase the […]

One of my EMS coworkers and a budding journalist Sean Freiman interviewed me recently about Hartford’s Opioid Crisis with a focus on the heroin bags. Click on the picture to view the interview.  

  Should unresponsive overdose victims receive rescue breaths or chest compressions from lay bystanders? If a person is apneic but not in cardiac arrest, failing to give rescue breaths may lead this person to fall into cardiac arrest. But, if the person is apneic and in cardiac arrest, failure to do quality chest compressions, will […]

Overdose on Babcock Street. In an alley behind a building. Fire is there before us. A familiar scene. As I approach I can see them hunched over the patient, the bag valve mask out. They have already given her four of narcan. I stand over them looking at the patient. I can’t see her face […]

Opioid deaths are generally classified as accidental overdoses. In 2017 Massachusetts began reporting opioid deaths as “All Intents” where they previously reported them as “Unintentional/Undetermined.” They point out that adding suicide deaths only marginally adds to the count. By their statistics only 2 percent of the total opioid deaths were confirmed as suicides. Massachusetts Opioid […]

I recently participated in a project to describe the daily routine of an EMT to help people considering a career in EMS.  The final product was published this week on the website below. INSIDE LOOK AT LIFE AS AN EMT Here is an excerpt: 5:30 AM: I punch in and checkout my equipment, my house bag […]

Overdose deaths are declining in some states, and they appear to be plateauing in Connecticut. Overdose Deaths Fall in 14 States In data released by the CDC, covering the time period July 2016-June 2017, 14 states showed a decline in overdose deaths, while nationwide deaths rose 14 percent. The data showed an 15.9% increase in […]

She curls on the couch sobbing. She found her son not breathing when she came home from her midnight shift. He is on the floor now.  The fire department first responders do compressions on his bare chest. The man is lean and muscled with jailhouse tattoos on his arms, chest, and neck. It isn’t a […]