FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Fort Lauderdale's Police and Fire Rescue departments are the latest South Florida agencies teaming up to train and arm officers with medicine to try to stop deaths from opioid overdoses.
"Opioids are a respiratory depressant, so it slows your breathing down eventually to where you'll stop breathing and go into respiratory arrest and then cardiac arrest," Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Daniel Oatmeyer said.
Fort Lauderdale police now have 30 kits equipped with naloxone, which is commonly known by the brand name Narcan. It reverses an overdose from drugs such as heroin and fentanyl that are becoming increasingly dangerous.
"In the past few years, the overdose encounters that police are having with opioids -- those types of drugs have reached epidemic proportions," Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione said.
"Year to date, we've administered Narcan over 450 times," Oatmeyer said. "It's one of those things that's consistent, so yes, we see it on a daily basis."
Local 10 News recently showed viewers video of a Miami-Dade police officer using naloxone to revive an overdose victim. The Miami-Dade Police Department began using the medication early this month.
"We want to reduce the amount of time a patient in need of Narcan and the time that the Fire Department can arrive on scene," Maglione said. "There may be some cases where we either encounter someone who overdoses and we will call the Fire Department, or if one of our own officers are exposed."
The goal is for all Fort Lauderdale patrol officers to eventually carry naloxone. First responders said the need is clear.
"The brain needs oxygen and if it's deprived for four to six minutes of oxygen, it's going to die," Oatmeyer said.