‘It’s life-saving’: Dougherty County EMS seeks grant for overdose medication
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By Alan Mauldin
alan.mauldin
@albanyherald.com
ALBANY — Over the past two weekends, Dougherty County has racked up seven suspected opiate overdose cases, resulting in four deaths and three revived with the assistance of the medication Narcan.
Based on the results of using the nasal spray version of naloxone over nearly a year’s time, the county’s Emergency Medical Services is looking at acquiring a supply for next year through state funding.
The agency was funded this year with a grant from the Morehouse School of Medicine through Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s Network of Trust.
“It’s life-saving,” EMS Director Sam Allen said during an interview following a Monday Dougherty County Commission meeting. “From Friday afternoon at 5 (p.m.) until this morning at 8 o’clock, we have administered three boxes of Narcan.”
All three of those patients survived, Allen said.
At the Monday meeting Allen requested and received permission from commissioners to apply for a $16,692 Naloxone Statewide Initiative Grant. There is no local match required for the funds if the ambulance service is approved for a grant.
The medication costs about $150 per box, each of which contains two bottles of the medication, and Allen estimated the grant would fund about 111 doses.
The nasal spray saves time in emergency situations because prior to receiving a supply earlier this year, paramedics had to assess a patient and then return to the ambulance to get supplies for the intravenous version of the drug.
During the previous weekend, four deaths in which opiate overdose is the suspected cause occurred, Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler said during a telephone interview after the meeting.
So far this year, there have been at least 22 confirmed overdose deaths, the coroner said, and a number of cases for which he is awaiting toxicology results.
“The ones we (suspect) are ones where we’re seeing drug paraphernalia and needles at the scene,” he said. “It’s definitely going up. That’s definitely going on in Dougherty County. It’s probably happening everywhere, but that’s what we’re seeing here.”
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