* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Thursday, October 2, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Claims He Was ‘Disrespected’ on the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Opens Up About Feeling ‘Disrespected’ During the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Virginia Tech hosts annual New Music + Technology Festival this week – Cardinal News

    Virginia Tech Kicks Off Exciting Annual New Music and Technology Festival This Week

    Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee – The Guardian

    Why I Decided to Make the World Wide Web Free for Everyone | Tim Berners-Lee

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Claims He Was ‘Disrespected’ on the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Opens Up About Feeling ‘Disrespected’ During the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Virginia Tech hosts annual New Music + Technology Festival this week – Cardinal News

    Virginia Tech Kicks Off Exciting Annual New Music and Technology Festival This Week

    Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee – The Guardian

    Why I Decided to Make the World Wide Web Free for Everyone | Tim Berners-Lee

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Health

Is Naloxone in Your First Aid Kit for Opioid Overdose?

June 23, 2023
in Health
Is Naloxone in Your First Aid Kit for Opioid Overdose?
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

“You would have looked at my sons and never known,” says Bonnie Milas, MD.

She’s speaking about the accidental opioid overdoses that killed her two adult sons in 2018 and 2019. She and other doctors say there’s something that could spare many other families from going through the same tragedy. 

It’s naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose and is available without a prescription, or “over the counter,” as Narcan nasal spray. It won’t hurt someone. And you don’t need special medical training or certification to use it.

Naloxone should be in all first aid kits, Milas says, because you never know who might be at risk. 

Her sons were both athletes who excelled in school and showed no signs of addiction. Milas asked WebMD not to publish her sons’ names for privacy reasons.

“People have in their minds what a drug user looks like,” Milas says. “They picture someone who’s out on the street. We need to recognize that it’s not just certain people who become addicted. It’s all of us. There are some very highly functional individuals who are using and it’s kept secret.”

Milas administers opioid medications to her patients every day as part of their medical care. She’s also had to use naloxone to save her younger son twice in the 48 hours after he was discharged from an inpatient treatment facility. 

The first time, she found him on the kitchen floor. He was unconscious, his lips blue. She called for her father-in-law to call an ambulance as she grabbed the naloxone. 

The next day, she found her same son locked inside the bathroom. His body was slumped against the door. She got the naloxone, took the bathroom door off its hinges, and revived her son again.

“No one should have to go through that,” Milas says. “It’s a very hard thing to watch and experience as a parent, as a family member, as a friend.” 

An accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, later took her youngest son’s life. (Milas doesn’t speak publicly about her older son’s death.) As a prescription medication, fentanyl is approved to treat patients with severe pain, especially after surgery. But it’s also widely abused and illegally made. At 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, fentanyl is part of a national epidemic of opioid-related deaths that killed more than 564,000 people in the U.S. from 1999 to 2020, CDC data show.

It can happen very quickly. 

“Taken orally, fentanyl can render the person unconscious in minutes, and if injected or smoked, as little as 90 seconds,” Milas says. “There is simply not enough time to wait for paramedics to arrive. It’s a potentially terrifying situation to be in if you are first on the scene and not prepared. Having naloxone on hand and basic life support skills is training to be a lifesaver.”

Within 2 to 3 minutes, naloxone reverses an opioid overdose. It works in the brain, binding to certain receptors and displacing the opioid. That allows normal breathing and consciousness to come back. 

Naloxone’s effects can last up to 90 minutes. Someone may need multiple doses if they have fentanyl in their system.

When given quickly after an opioid overdose, it can save a person’s life. If they’ve overdosed on something else, naloxone won’t harm them. 

It’s especially important to have naloxone if you or someone you know has opioid use disorder. In fact, the CDC likens carrying naloxone to carrying an epinephrine auto-injector (like an Epi-Pen) if you have allergies.

Always call 911 if someone has overdosed. Stay with them until emergency medical care professionals arrive, since the person needs at least 4 hours of monitoring and medical attention to make sure their breathing is back to normal.

In February, Milas testified before an FDA committee in favor of making naloxone available over the counter. (The FDA approved over-the-counter Narcan nasal spray in March 2023.) 

“Now that you can pull naloxone off the shelf right next to the Tylenol, it removes the stigma and makes it mainstream,” Milas says. “So the soccer mom is going to go pick it up because she wants to be a responsible mom, a responsible citizen.”

Since the FDA approved over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray, the American Medical Association has called for health insurers to cover naloxone at no cost or a low cost and for it to be prominently placed on store shelves. The average cost for a box of generic naloxone spray (with two bottles in the box) is about $73, not including discounts or insurance. 

While Milas had to use naloxone on her son at home, overdoses can happen anywhere. 

It was in a public space – a bathroom in a Boston-area shelter for unhoused people – where Avik Chatterjee, MD, MPH, first administered naloxone. His patient was a woman who had become unconscious after using and had turned blue. 

Chatterjee used naloxone on her. Soon after, he recalls, she was breathing on her own, sitting up, and even talking. 

“It’s kind of this miraculous thing,” Chatterjee says of naloxone. “You don’t have anything in medicine that works so effectively, so dramatically, and in such a high percentage of the time as you do naloxone for drug overdoses.” He calls naloxone “very safe and lifesaving.”

Chatterjee, a Boston University assistant professor and primary care and addiction medicine physician, provides addiction medicine care at several shelter-based clinics through the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. He says many of his patients don’t have a home with a medicine cabinet to turn to for naloxone, so efforts to make naloxone widely available is critical. 

“Even the best-meaning person in long-term sobriety or recovery can relapse,” Chatterjee says.

“I’ve lost a lot of patients and physicians to overdoses, and I’ve had a couple of really, really scary overdoses myself,” says Peter Grinspoon, MD, a Harvard Medical School instructor and primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Grinspoon struggled with addiction at the start of his medical career. He’s been in recovery for more than 15 years. He’s written about it in books including Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction.

“Naloxone is to help make sure that people don’t die, plain and simple,” says Grinspoon. “It’s easy enough to carry it. You just put it in your pocket.”

It’s crucial, Grinspoon says, to recognize addiction as a complex medical condition, deserving of compassion and understanding. 

Chatterjee agrees. He calls harm reduction practices, such as making naloxone available, “a philosophy based in love because it’s the act of caring for another person’s well-being.”

For Milas, working to make naloxone widely available is part of her sons’ legacy.  She leads REVIVEme, an initiative of the American Society of Anesthesiologists that provides resources such as downloadable infographics and tutorials on how to use naloxone.

“I think that my sons would have been proud to see me represent a group of individuals – mothers, fathers, family members – who has suffered this loss,” Milas says. “Everyone deserves the right to be saved, to have a chance at recovery. Naloxone gives them another chance.”

Read more about harm reduction for people with opioid addiction.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : WebMD – https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/features/naloxone-your-first-aid-kit-opioid-overdose?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Tags: FirsthealthNaloxone
Previous Post

Dealing With the Physical Impact of Intense Grief

Next Post

Don’t Let Breast Cancer Subtype Guide Mastectomy Choice, Doctors Say

The billion-year reign of fungi that predated plants and made Earth livable – ScienceDaily

October 1, 2025
We Asked an Entomologist to Fact-Check the Science of ‘Alien: Earth’ – Esquire

We Asked an Entomologist to Fact-Check the Science of ‘Alien: Earth’ – Esquire

October 1, 2025
Building Better Leaders Through the Science of Happiness – Pace University

Unlocking Leadership Potential: How the Science of Happiness Transforms Leaders

October 1, 2025
Viral ‘Goth house’ for sale just in time for Halloween – The Weekly Journal

Step Inside the Spooky ‘Goth House’ Perfect for Halloween!

October 1, 2025
Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

October 1, 2025
Atlanta Braves Manager Brian Snitker Moving to ‘Advisory Role’ – FOX Sports

Atlanta Braves Manager Brian Snitker Moving to ‘Advisory Role’ – FOX Sports

October 1, 2025
The sleepy SF neighborhood that just became one of the world’s coolest – SFGATE

The sleepy SF neighborhood that just became one of the world’s coolest – SFGATE

October 1, 2025
The “stuck economy,” tariffs and Wall Street – marketplace.org

How Tariffs and Wall Street Are Strangling the Economy’s Growth

October 1, 2025
LSU Theatre’s season opener: A handkerchief discovered by a lovesick suitor adds up to hilarity – The Advocate

Love, Laughter, and a Lost Handkerchief: LSU Theatre’s Season Opener Promises Hilarious Fun

October 1, 2025
Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services | CMS (.gov)

Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services | CMS (.gov)

October 1, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (846)
  • Economy (866)
  • Entertainment (21,740)
  • General (17,353)
  • Health (9,910)
  • Lifestyle (880)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (869)
  • Politics (877)
  • Science (16,077)
  • Sports (21,367)
  • Technology (15,850)
  • World (849)

Recent News

The billion-year reign of fungi that predated plants and made Earth livable – ScienceDaily

October 1, 2025
We Asked an Entomologist to Fact-Check the Science of ‘Alien: Earth’ – Esquire

We Asked an Entomologist to Fact-Check the Science of ‘Alien: Earth’ – Esquire

October 1, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version