Medical workers and law enforcement officers are on the front lines of Alberta’s exploding opioid crisis and a video released by the RCMP Friday shows a Mountie – with the help of a civilian – saving the life of an overdosing man in dramatic fashion.
“Our members are doing things every day that don’t always get reported on and we’re not always aware of what goes on,” said Cpl. Laurel Scott, a spokesperson for RCMP K Division. “But personally, I haven’t seen something like this.”
The video was captured at around 9:15 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2016 by an RCMP officer’s dashcam in the northern Alberta town of Athabasca. It shows an officer and a woman performing CPR on a man lying in the back of a moving pickup truck being driven by another woman.
“The officer was flagged down by somebody in a pickup truck who were frantically trying to get some help for this man, who was very clearly in medical distress,” Scott said. “So he assessed the situation, did a bit of a risk assessment, called EMS and decided he had to do something very, very quickly. He couldn’t wait for EMS. I think he realized this may be a patient in medical distress due to a fentanyl overdose.”
Watch below: A shocking video has emerged showing a desperate attempt by an RCMP officer to save a man from a fentanyl overdose. Fletcher Kent has the details.
According to Scott, the man did indeed suffer a fentanyl overdose but is now alive and well. She beamed when asked how she first reacted to the video.
“That’s a great job and I’d want that guy there if I was in trouble,” Scott said.
“I’d like to acknowledge the civilian that helped out. I also thought, ‘that is fantastic for a civilian to hop in the back of the truck and all those dynamics – in the back of a moving pickup truck, conducting CPR and artificial respiration as they go down the road – that civilian, too, is incredible.”
According to Scott, the RCMP started to roll out training specifically meant for officers responding to opioid-related incidents this fall and have been provided with emergency kits that contain the fentanyl antidote – naloxone.
“The basis of our police work is to keep the community safe and save lives and if this is part of that, it’s important.”
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According to Alberta Health, 338 Albertans died from opioid overdoses between January and September of 2016. Of those, 193 of the deaths were from fentanyl.
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Earlier this week, the Alberta government unveiled more details as to how it is responding to the opioid crisis and said it is concerned about the arrival of carfentanil- a drug 100 times more powerful than fentanyl.
Scott said she did not know if the officer in the back of the pickup truck has met with the man who overdosed since the incident.
Athabasca is about 150 kilometres north of Edmonton.