Call 911 immediately if you see someone with these symptoms:
- Loss of consciousness
- Unresponsive to outside stimulus
- Awake, but unable to talk
- Slow, erratic, shallow breathing or has stopped breathing
- Skin tone turns bluish-purple for lighter-skinned people and grayish or ashen for darker-skinned people. Fingernails and lips turn blue or purplish black
- Choking sound or snore-like gurgling noise
- Vomiting
- Limp body
- Face is very pale or clammy
- Pulse is slow or not there at all
It is rare for someone to die immediately from an overdose. People survive because someone was there to respond. It is worth trying to wake someone if they are making unfamiliar sounds while they appear to be “sleeping”. It may be an opportunity to save a life.
Attend a training on how to use Naloxone and keep some with you in case of emergencies.
Naloxone is a prescription medication that temporarily stops the effect of opioids. Naloxone is the generic name of the drug, other names include Narcan and Evzio.
Naloxone has no effect on someone who has not taken opioids and has a long safety history with rare adverse side effects.