Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of a multipart series looking at the drug epidemic gripping the nation.

By Chris Parker

cparker@tnonline.com

The skyrocketing numbers of fatal overdoses of heroin and other opioids could be even worse were it not for naloxone.

Commonly known by its brand name, Narcan, naloxone is a medication that can reverse an overdose that is caused by an opioid drug such as heroin, Oxycontin or tramadol.

Most often administered through the nose via preloaded syringe, naloxone works by blocking the effects of opioids on the brain. It restores breathing within 2 to 8 minutes.

On Jan. 10, Gov. Tom Wolf declared the opioid epidemic a statewide disaster. Under this declaration, emergency service providers are now able to leave naloxone behind after a 911 visit.

Naloxone is also available at many pharmacies and through some drug treatment agencies.

Patrick’s story

Choosing to sample a hit of heroin after three months of sobriety could have plunged Patrick J. McLaughlin back into the hell of addiction.

Instead, it nearly killed him.

The 25-year-old Lehighton man had a Narcotics Anonymous meeting to attend that day, but decided instead to shower and get ready for a party when his phone rang.

“It was an old acquaintance back from when I was using,” McLaughlin said.

“She said, ‘I have some killer (expletive) if you want to try it.’”

Although he had not used drugs for three months, he said, “I wasn’t practicing my recovery. I wasn’t spiritually conditioned or recovery conditioned.”

After three months clean, the offer was “like dangling a steak in front of a starving dog,” McLaughlin said.

“I said yes.”

He bought two bags of what he believed was heroin.

“The second I did it, I don’t remember anything. It immediately dropped me. I felt nothing,” he said.

To death and back

McLaughlin’s friend came upstairs to find him bleeding from his nose and mouth. She called 911.

“I was frothing and gurgling. I could see and hear little snippets of what was gong on, but I couldn’t respond. My heart was racing, I was sweating and hearing a loud humming sound. Then I got really, really tired, like I just wanted to sleep,” he said.

An ambulance crew arrived and gave McLaughlin a dose of Narcan. After no response, they gave him another.

“I took a big breath. The (emergency medical technicians) said I was an inch from not coming back,” he said.

“I felt like someone shook me to wake me up. I was confused, sweating, my heart was racing, and I was disoriented. I never felt the high,” McLaughlin said.

In the ambulance, he couldn’t breathe, and it felt like his lungs were on fire.

Rushed into the hospital, McLaughlin’s blood pressure plummeted. He vomited blood.

“I had a pint and a half of blood in my lungs, pulmonary hemorrhaging. Blood vessels popped in my chest and nose,” McLaughlin said.

A toxicology screen showed little heroin in his system.

“It could have been fentanyl or carfentanil,” he said.

Authorities have recently warned people that heroin containing fentanyl, a powerful painkiller 50 times more potent than heroin, has been circulating in Hazleton.

That’s where the drug McLaughlin had taken came from, he said.

McLaughlin was fortunate. Authorities are concerned about a type of Narcan-resistant fentanyl, acryl-fentanyl, being found in heroin.

Recovering

“The Narcan definitely saved my life, but I have a higher power looking out for me,” McLaughlin said.

“I was slipping away on the way to the hospital. It was definitely something you don’t want to go through,” he said.

“For whatever reason, my God had me go through it. I’m grateful to be here. I’m glad it happened. It gave me a different perspective on how fragile life is. The only thing keeping us alive is a heartbeat,” McLaughlin said.

The lack of oxygen as he overdosed left McLaughlin with some memory problems, but he believes it was a miracle the damage wasn’t worse.

He said a neighbor recently took the same drug and also had to be revived.

McLaughlin kept the Narcan box and the bloodied clothing he wore that day.

“My mind wants to tell me it was all a dream and it didn’t really happen. I keep these things just in case one day I wake up and think it didn’t really happen. I definitely will not forget this happened,” he said.

Moving forward

“I will use the experience in a positive way,” McLaughlin said.

“Narcan wasn’t the only thing that brought me back. It was a higher power and my will to live,” he said. “I’m blessed to be here.”

His lapse could have ended in jail, an institution, or death. That experience was his last use, he said.

“I don’t have it in me. If I used one more time I’d be dead,” McLaughlin said.

He wants to reach out to help others.

“I’ve been to hell and back. If I can get clean, there’s no reason why you can’t get clean,” he said. “If I can do it, so can you.”

To find naloxone near you, visit https://www.overdosefreepa.pitt.edu/find-local-resources/find-naloxone.