Thursday, October 1, 2026
On Jan. 30, three East Rockaway Fire Department members revived a man in his twenties suffering from a heroin overdose with a Narcan intranasal spray. The East Rockaway Village Board presented Chief Thomas Johnson, Chief Gene Torborg Jr. and Patricia Seifert with citations at its regular meeting on Feb. 8 to honor their efforts. “It’s used too frequently,” Torborg said of the drug.
Similar to the way beta blockers work to mediate the body’s stress response, Narcan, or naloxone, blocks opioid receptors in the brain, temporarily relieving the effects of an overdose. When successful, this keeps the body functioning long enough to get the victim to a hospital. “Those minutes are vital,” Torborg said, adding that if they hadn’t been trained in Narcan, “that person would not be alive.”
Since Narcan can be used by the non-medically trained, Torborg was able to administer the drug to the man before the Emergency Medical Services team arrived. He said the man walked himself to the ambulance.
Mayor Bruno Romano held up his own Narcan kit, which he said he received at the most recent training seminar on Jan. 13, urging the audience to take advantage of the instructional course.
“These three individuals saved this one man’s life,” Romano said. “This happens all the time and unfortunately is a serious problem in our community.”
Torborg, who keeps the revival kit in his truck, said that the incident happened almost exactly one year from when he was certified in Narcan.
