Police Revive Man Who Drove Under the Influence of Heroin

The Bedford Police Department saved a heroin overdose patient who crashed his car into opposing traffic on Tuesday morning.

Officers used an opioid reversal drug to revive the patient. It was Bedford Police Department’s first time using Narcan since officers received training on the drug in June.

Officers and paramedics administered two doses of Nasal Narcan the 22-year-old man from Merrimack, N.H., who was suffering from a heroin overdose, officials say.

Narcan, also known as Naloxone, can immediately reverse the effects of overdoses of opioid drugs such as heroin, OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan, and hydrocodone drugs like Vicodin.

At about 1:30 a.m., Sergeant Paul Saunders discovered a man who was unconscious, slowly breathing and unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a Volkswagen GTI with New Hampshire plates.

The car was stopped in the opposing lane and facing traffic on Crosby Drive near Middlesex Turnpike. The driver crashed the car into the road’s center median and caused a flat tire and significant wheel and undercarriage damage, police say.

The man regained consciousness in the ambulance after the second Narcan dose was administered and was brought to Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, police say.

Police discovered a bag of syringes and a bag with contents believed to be heroin in the car.

The man was charged with drug possession, operating under the influence of drugs, operating to endanger and a marked lanes violation.

Additional police and fire departments in Massachusetts have also received training in using Narcan, including the Stoneham Fire Department and the North Reading Police Department. An opioid overdose patient was revived with Narcan in North Reading on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Opioid overdose has become one of the leading causes of death in Massachusetts, and Governor Deval Patrick declared the issue a public health crisis in March.