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Earlier this year, Kamloops resident Candice Romanoff came across a man in the alley behind her residence who was slumped over, not moving.

She called 911 and asked the receptionist to stay on the line while she tried to wake the man up, but she couldn’t rouse him.

“They asked me to time his breaths, they were too far in between each other so I told him loudly he was overdosing and I was going to Narcan him,” she said.

Despite Romanoff’s fear the man would wake up swinging, she said she laid him down while a dispatcher talked her through injecting a dose of naloxone.

“I broke open the tiny bottle, sucked all the fluid into the syringe, flicked the syringe to get the air bubbles to the top and pressed the air out,” she said. “I injected it into his shoulder, he started moaning but didn’t wake up.”

Romanoff said she gave the man three doses of naloxone before an ambulance arrived, and when he eventually woke up, he was crying.

“He held onto me and cried and said it was embarrassing,” she said. “I just kept rocking him and telling him it was OK until paramedics arrived.”

It isn’t the first time the social work student revived an overdose victim. Last summer Romanoff was driving with her young son and pulled over to help a man who was lying face down on the side of a busy road in Kamloops.

“I told my son not to watch and pulled the man out of the bush, he was vomiting,” she said. “I called 911 and they talked me through Narcan. The ambulance was faster that time and took over before he woke fully. He would have died if my son hadn’t spotted him, we had to talk about a lot of big things after that, he was only eight.”

The overdose crisis in BC has been growing every year since the province declared a state of emergency in 2016. With an ever-increasing number of people overdosing comes the increasing odds a member of the public will come across one.

Not everyone knows how to respond, nor how to know if a person appears unresponsive because they are overdosing or because they are high. There is also a safety risk. 

Chelsea Corsi is the coordinator of the Wellness Centre at Thompson Rivers University. There she trains student leaders and ambassadors every year to train others on how to use naloxone kits, something she and her team started doing shortly after the drug overdose emergency was announced seven years ago.

“The ethical dilemma is how do we respond when we’re unsure, if we’re walking or driving by and don’t know when to intervene," she said. "What does unresponsive mean? It means someone isn’t easy to wake up even if you yell or give them a pain stimulus."

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The overdose victim may be unconscious and can’t be woken up, have a slow heart rate, low blood pressure and shallow breathing or no breathing.

“When breathing normally a person takes 12 or more breaths per minute," Corsi said. "Someone may look like they’re slowly breathing but are gurgling, or gasping for air.”

Corsi guesses she has trained thousands of people how to use naloxone kits, including students, staff and security guards, but it still isn’t the same as reviving an overdose victim in real life. 

“It can be very overwhelming even if you have training, it can be a life and death situation, it can be scary when reality hits," she said. "I do the training but I don’t have a lot of experience on the ground.”

The fear of reviving someone is also a reality.

Romanoff’s partner has been revived with naloxone in the past.

“My boyfriend says it hurts a lot when you wake up from naloxone, it’s an instant withdrawal which is why some people wake up defensive," she said.

“They are also used to being robbed while asleep so they wake up to people thinking they’re being robbed. It’s why I speak loudly to them and repeat what I’m going to do.”

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Corsi echoed the statement, saying the quick withdrawal can cause the overdose victim to be scared, angry or overwhelmed. Part of the training she does is focussed on safety.

“We remind everyone to think about their safety, try to have other people come to help and make sure there is space between you and the person. It’s best to stay with them until paramedics arrive but that isn’t always possible for safety reasons.”

Naloxone is a drug used to treat known or possible opioid overdoses and is available as a nasal spray or injection. It can be used in people of all ages. It is available without a prescription and can be purchased or given for free at most pharmacies.

Naloxone blocks receptors in the brain that opioids bind to, helping to reverse symptoms of opioid overdose.

“Everyone has pain receptors in our brain and too much opioid depresses your nervous system and stops you from breathing,” Corsi said. “Naloxone basically kicks off the opioid and takes its place, helping the central nervous system to work properly. It might take multiple doses depending on how much toxicity is in a person’s body."

This summer, nasal application naloxone kits were installed on walls throughout the TRU campus, and the Wellness Centre partnered with the leaders and masters of nursing students at the university who have a simulation station.

“They put together a simulation for what it's like to respond to overdoses with a live actor to give naloxone to,” Corsi said. “The simulations helped the students feel more confident, and the nurses provided an overview of CPR.”

On Sept. 20, the Interior Health Authority issued a drug poisoning overdose alert for the Kamloops area due to increased fatal and ongoing non-fatal drug poisoning overdoses.

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The authority recommends using one drug at a time either with others around or at an overdose prevention site and to start with small, spaced-out doses.

Getting drugs tested and carrying a naloxone kit is also recommended.

Go here to find drug testing locations in Kamloops and the Okanagan.

Go here to learn what steps to take if you come across a person overdosing. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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