In midst of opioid epidemic, Rockville Centre residents train to save lives

Locals receive certification, Narcan kit to reverse effects of an overdose

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David Hymowitz, of the Nassau County Department of Human Services, led a training session at Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth on Aug. 23, teaching residents how to reverse an opioid overdose by administering Narcan.
David Hymowitz, of the Nassau County Department of Human Services, led a training session at Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth on Aug. 23, teaching residents how to reverse an opioid overdose by administering Narcan.
Ben Strack/Herald

“Everyone here is concerned about someone else,” Rabbi Marc Gruber said at a Narcan training session last week at Central Synagogue-Beth Emeth. “Whether it’s someone you know or a stranger, it’s so vitally important that we be here for one another.”

About 50 people gathered at the synagogue for a training program on Aug. 23 hosted by the Nassau County Department of Human Services, which has conducted 262 sessions and taught more than 11,500 people how to treat narcotic overdoses with naloxone, the generic form of Narcan, since starting the program six years ago.

Narcan, the first FDA-approved nasal form of naloxone for the emergency treatment of opioid overdoses, has become a key tool for police and emergency medical technicians as a nationwide opioid epidemic rages on.

Opioids, a class of drugs that includes heroin, fentanyl and prescription pain relievers like OxyContin and Vicodin, latch on to receptors in the brain. Naloxone molecules travel to the brain’s opioid receptor sites and displace opioid molecules to rapidly reverse the potentially life-threatening effects of an overdose.

David Hymowitz, of the Department of Human Services, who led the training, said the department began by working with first responders, but realized that the people calling the police to report overdoses should also learn to administer the treatment.

“The number of people that are overdosing and the number of people that are dying is astronomical,” Hymowitz said, “… so for us, we’re trying to save people’s lives.”

In 2016, there were 63,632 drug overdose deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and opioids were involved in 42,249 of them.

In Nassau County this year, there have been 246 opioid overdoses, 50 of them fatal, according to Nassau County police. Narcan has been administered 307 times. “We use it as a diagnostic tool,” said Mike Seltzer, president of the Nassau County Police Medic Association, noting at the training that first responders sometimes use Narcan during a cardiac arrest when they don’t know what the problem is.

All Rockville Centre police officers are trained to administer Narcan annually, and there are doses in every police car, Commissioner James Vafeades said, adding that the department has responded to about 30 opioid overdoses since 2016. “We’ve used Narcan seven different times, and we’ve saved seven people,” he said. There were three fatal overdoses in the village in 2014 — the year the department began using Narcan — and one in 2015, but none since, according to Vafeades. “Thankfully, we’ve been a late bloomer in the opioid game, so it’s a low number compared to other jurisdictions.”

Rockville Centre Fire Chief Brian Cook said that all EMS personnel and fire chiefs are trained to administer Narcan, and that the drug is kept in the ambulances and the chiefs’ cars. The frequency of overdoses in the village has slowed in the past year, Cook said, but he has administered Narcan twice in the past six months. “It doesn’t have any negative effects on people if it’s used,” he said, “so if somebody’s overdosing or believed to be overdosing, we always use Narcan to see if it reverses the effects.”

The training, after which participants received a certification card and two doses of Narcan to use during emergencies, also served as an educational forum on the roots of the opioid epidemic.

“I know a lot of people, they lock up their money, they lock up their passport, they lock up their jewelry,” Hymowitz said to the several dozen trainees. “How many of you lock up your medicine cabinets?” Four people raised their hands, which he noted was more than usual.

Many opioid users steal from medicine cabinets, he said, noting scams the Police Department has discovered, including people applying for contracting licenses only to get inside people’s homes and loot prescriptions drugs. Older family members are also a target.

“They go visit Grandma,” Hymowitz said of drug addicts, “because Grandma’s got all that stuff in her medicine cabinet, and Grandma doesn’t know it’s there.” He added that people should dispose of expired and unwanted prescription drugs at drop boxes, like the one in Rockville Centre’s police headquarters on Maple Avenue.

Hymowitz and Seltzer stressed that witnesses to an overdose should call the police and give the person Narcan while first responders are en route. The trainees also learned about state laws put in place to encourage people to be more proactive in order to save the lives of those who overdose.

New York state’s 911 Good Samaritan Law, for example, encourages witnesses to an overdose to call the police without fear of being arrested for certain illegal activity.

A state law passed in 2006 allows non-medical people to administer Narcan, and another, passed in 2013, created a prescription monitoring registry to better regulate the prescriptions that pharmacies can fill for one person. “It’s not just the Police Department that’s adapting,” Vafeades said. “It’s everyone.”

Rockville Centre resident Suzy Gelman said her friends have used Narcan on people they know, and saved their lives. Because of that, she said, she decided to get certified. “It’s not just the 19-year-old with a needle in his arm — it’s Grandma that took too many pills,” she said, repeating what she learned. “It was very informative. I hope I don’t ever have to use it, but I’m thrilled that I came.”