The parents of a 19-year old who died in a bar on St-Laurent Boulevard last summer are outraged after learning that Montreal police (SPVM) officers are not equipped with naloxone kits, especially considering the recent surge in opioid overdoses.
The SPVM said on Tuesday that it had suspended training indefinitely during the coronavirus pandemic, later clarifying that officers should resume training this fall.
On Wednesday, Montreal’s mayor confirmed the move, adding that the tainted-drug crisis in Montreal does not compare to other cities.
“That being said, we need to take it very seriously,” said Mayor Valerie Plante.
“The police officer will be receiving their training from the health network soon.”
But the fact that officers in the province’s largest city are still not trained or equipped to use naloxone doesn’t sit well with the parents of Archie MacIsaac, who had a promising future before taking a fatal dose of fentanyl in the bar’s bathroom in June of 2019. The coroner’s report confirmed the cause of death nine months later, in April 2020.
Charlene Vacon and Rob MacIsaac still question why no one in the bar and none of the emergency responders were equipped with the life-saving tool.
“No one gave Archie naloxone,” said Vacon. “The police that came, no naloxone. The first responders that came from the fire department, no naloxone.”
Archie’s parents say they met with the bar owners shortly after the incident and gave them naloxone kits.
“They were so thankful to receive that because they didn’t know about it,” said Vacon.
“It’s surprising to me — shocking to me — that we don’t put that in the hands of all our emergency responders. It’s so accessible, so easy to use and easy to administer,” said MacIsaac, Archie’s father.
Police officers in Laval, Quebec City and some Sureté du Quebec patrollers are already trained and administering the antidote.
All Montreal fire trucks were equipped with naloxone kits last year and the majority of firefighters have now received the training.
“In 2019 it was used approximately 20 times in order to bring somebody back that was suffering from an opioid overdose,” said Chris Ross, president of the Montreal Firefighters Association.
“It’s a really simple measure. You have three types of kits: an intramuscular, an intravenous and the nasal kit.”
In an exceptional measure, firefighters stopped responding to emergency medical calls between March 14 and July 9, a decision by the health ministry to minimize contamination during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis.
“With the exception of this period since the beginning of 2020, firefighter-first responders administered nalaxone six times,” said Melanie Gagne from the city of Montreal’s media relations team.
Urgences Santé paramedics administered nalaxone 83 times since the beginning of the year, 10 of those times between July 1-10.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Plante admitted that the more people who can administer the antidote, “the better it is.”
Archie’s parents wonder why it has taken so long for something that seems so simple.
“It makes no sense to me that we wouldn’t immediately have put this in everybody’s hands,” said MacIsaac.
Archie’s mother works as an emergency medical services specialist. She has worked for Urgences Santé in the past and in Alberta and the United States as paramedic. She feels that the very people who could have saved him failed him that fateful night.
“As a paramedic and as a mother, I want to be able to say I did everything I could when someone is dying, I want to be able to say to their family to their friends I did everything I could and I couldn’t save them.” said Vacon.
“This is what hurts me now. I do not feel like that answer is possible with Archie.”
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