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Hoffman Estates police save first life from overdose

Hoffman Estates police officers Thursday night saved their first life from an opiate drug overdose, only nine days after being authorized to carry the antidote naloxone.

Shortly before midnight, police officers were the first to get to a residence on the 1600 block of Bedford Lane, where a 25-year-old man was unconscious and not breathing — and exhibiting signs of an opiate overdose.

An officer administered a single dose of Narcan (a brand of naloxone), which immediately began to reverse the effects of the overdose, officials said. Soon, the man was breathing on his own.

Naloxone is designed to treat an overdose from any opiate narcotic, including heroin and methadone.

Hoffman Estates paramedics got there soon after. They treated the man further at the scene and then took him to St. Alexius Medical Center to be monitored.

The village board formally voted Oct. 5 to have patrol officers carry Narcan. Anticipating the approval, those officers had already been trained how to administer naloxone by the Kane County Health Department's free program.

Hoffman Estates police Sgt. Kasia Cawley said she distributed the Narcan doses — also supplied for free by the Kane County Health Department — to officers on Oct. 6.

Hoffman Estates police might carry heroin antidote

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