Hennepin Health paramedics now carry medication to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms
MINNEAPOLIS – Paramedics in Hennepin County are now among the first in the nation to carry Suboxone, a new medication to treat withdrawal symptoms for patients overdosing on opioids.
The drug is not a replacement for Narcan, but EMS crews still think it can be a gamechanger.
Hennepin EMS Battalion Chief Michael Trullinger will soon wrap up a nearly 40-year career as a first responder, a calling that's directed more and more attention to treating people overdosing on opioids.
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"In my experience, we get between 12 to 15 calls per shift, not just 24 hours. It's probably more than that," Trullinger said. "You're probably looking close to 20 calls a day that are somehow related to opioids or opioid overdoses, and a lot of them of late are fatal."
Thankfully, Narcan has emerged as an antidote to those overdoses, used more than 1,000 times in the last six months, according to Hennepin EMS. But the medication has its limits. It doesn't treat withdrawal symptoms, which Trullinger says includes nausea, vomiting, anxiety, and even violence.
New this month, Hennepin EMS ambulances are now carrying Suboxone to help reduce the risk of those symptoms happening.
"For the patients that meet that criteria, this is a big game changer," Trullinger said.
Unlike Narcan, which is inhaled or injected, Suboxone is a pill that dissolves. Hennepin Health ambulances are carrying up to two doses. Trullinger said it's been given to patients three times since Hennepin EMS first stocked the drug last week.
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Health officials stress that Suboxone is not meant to replace Narcan. It's just another tool in the toolbox, and one that crews hope will bring better outcomes for patients, and for paramedics themselves.
"Our job is to take care of people, and now we can do more for them, which in the long run helps us lower our stress because we're able to help," he said. "This is a tool we didn't have and we had to come up with other ways of trying to deal with these side effects and these withdrawal symptoms. So yeah, it's a big game changer."
Suboxone will only be carried by paramedics on ambulances. Crews giving the treatment have also gone through extra training to understand how Suboxone might interact with a patient's other medications.
