Dozens Of New Jersey School Nurses Sign Up For Training On Overdose Antidote Narcan
MAHWAH, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The miracle medicine that can halt an overdose was introduced to dozens of New Jersey school nurses Wednesday.
School nurses at an increasing number of New Jersey schools have Naloxone – or Narcan by brand name -- ready to go in nasal spray form. The drug revives overdose victims by flipping the off switch to receptors in the brain so the effects of heroin, OxyContin and other powerful painkillers get blocked.
Now, as WCBS 880's Sean Adams reported, Mahwah police and The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey teamed up to train health care workers on how to use the opioid antidote.
One hundred nurses signed up in just 48 hours.
Mahwah police Chief James Batelli said the heroin crisis keeps getting worse.
"Last week, we had a 17-year-old honor student from Rockland County, left his house, snuck out without his parents knowing at about 1 o'clock in the morning, to go to Paterson to buy heroin," Batelli said. "Came back on Route 287, had a car crash, overdosed, went into an overdose coma, and our officers revived him with Narcan."
He said once trained, nurses can go back to their schools and talk to student, parents, and administrators. They can spread the warning, answer questions, and administer Narcan and save a life necessary.
