DA announces county-wide program to supply Narcan to first responders

Oct. 31, 2018 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced a coalition of health providers have created a $70,000 fund to buy Narcan for the county’s first responders.
Reminder Publishing photo by G. Michael Dobbs

SPRINGFIELD – For Chicopee Police Chief William Jebb Narcan is a “godsend.”

Jebb was among people who attended a press conference on Oct. 30 hosted by Hampden Country District Attorney Anthony Gulluni that announced a coalition including his office, Baystate Health, Trinity Health of New England, and The Center for Human Development have contributed $70,000 to fund the over-dose drug for first responders.  

Jebb told Reminder Publishing that since initiating a program in Chicopee in February with Narcan in all police cruisers and with all school resource officers, 36 lives in his city have been saved. He said he had been looking at his budget to try to find the funding to buy more of the drug.

Gulluni explained that conversations with Springfield Fire Commissioner BJ Calvi led to the idea of reaching out to Baystate Health, Trinity Health of New England, and The Center for Human Development to see if funds would be available to augment what some cities and towns are already doing as well as supplying Narcan to communities that have not made the drug available to first responders.

Calvi said his department in Springfield uses Narcan three to four times a week with each does costing $45. He recalled how one day, a car pulled up to the Fired Department headquarters on Worthington Street with a person suffering from an overdose and heart failure inside. Fire personnel responded and saved the person’s life thanks in part to Narcan.

Dr. Peter D. Friedmann, chief research officer and endowed chair for Clinical Research, Baystate Health, said that 200 people across the country die from opioid overdoes every day and that in the past year 72,000 people have passed.

Looking at the display of 100 doses of the drug at the press conference Friedmann said, “What you see is 100 lives going to be saved.”

Erin Daley, RN, director of Emergency Services at Mercy Medical Center, explained how Narcan is a “vital entry point” for not just saving a person’s life, but potentially putting an addict’s life on the road to recovery. She said Mercy’s emergency room uses Narcan about 20 times a month.

Jim Goodwin, the president of CHD, called Narcan, “a huge tool that makes a difference in people’s lives.”

Gulluni said the pharmacy at Baystate Medical Center would administer the drug to the county’s first responders. He said the funding is “adding to the reservoir of Narcan and easing the burden.”

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