You’re halfway through your tour when dispatch assigns you a call that has become an all too familiar response: an unconscious male in a dorm at the local college. You and your partner go through a quick checklist: tech bag; oxygen; monitor; suction unit; and opiate overdose kit, almost reflexively.
You arrive on scene to find a group of students packed into a dorm room. You conduct a quick size-up: The scene appears safe with no apparent danger to you or your partner. You ask for the room to be cleared and discover an approximately 19-year-old male on the bed, unconscious and barely breathing. A quick clinical assessment of behavior shows a radial pulse barely palpable at 70 beats per minute (bpm), the airway appears intact and self-maintained, and breathing is agonal at seven bpm. There are no obvious signs of trauma. The skin is unremarkable with the exception of track marks on the left forearm.
You and your partner make eye contact; “OD,” you both exclaim in unison. Pinpoint pupils further support your assessment. The almost rhetorical question is asked of no one in particular, “Anyone know what he took?” Silence.
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