chewing on fentanyl patches....

looking back at this year in my day-at-a-glance. on Jan. 6th i was working some overtime on Medic 12 with JM. called to an overdose, 23D. arrived on scene to a beat up trailer in a crappy trailer park that butts up against a major roadway, this was the trailer right up against the road. as with most trailers there was no way to get the stretcher up in there without some major shucking so we grabbed the bag, suction and monitor and entered the mad house. there was a dude and a chick, both obvious young meth heads. the guy walked us into the bathroom and laying on the floor, soaking wet, fully clothed, pale, cyanotic, and breathing about 4 times a minute was a skinny white chick. her boyfriend stated, after hemming and hawing until we said "we are not police, we don't give a shit just tell us what she took", he finally stated she was "chewing on morphine patches" and he was trying to wake her by soaking her in the bathtub with cold water. we pulled her freezing cold body straight out onto the living room floor, i cut her shirt off and placed the pads on her chest, she still had a pulse but was bradycardic, and JM began to bag her with a BVM. it was my call, we are both paramedics so we switch each call, and i started an IV and got the narcan out. JM checked her mouth for patches but they were not there anymore, pupils pinpoint and sluggish. while i was getting the narcan ready her dumb friend was on the couch behind me and was crying and asked me "should we have called?". since they are all youngsters i was able to swear at her and fully let her know how stupid she was for 1) asking that question and 2) not calling sooner. bam! 2 mg narcan and she opened her eyes and gasped for air. within 30 seconds she was crying and talking to us. she was about 5 minutes away from death and then the narcan snatched her back to the toilet bowl that is her drug addicted life. narcan is such a cool drug. one ED MD asked out loud once why they can't make a "narcan for alcohol". if you can develop one you could make millions.