Man Overdoses On I-5, WSP Troopers Save His Life

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, WA - Two Washington State Patrol troopers revived an overdose victim Monday afternoon along I-5. The troopers found the victim, who was the passenger in a car, along I-5 near 220th Street Southwest around 1 p.m.

According to WSP spokesman Rick Johnson, two troopers administered three doses of the anti-opioid drug Narcan before the man began breathing again. He was taken to a nearby hospital for further treatment.

WSP troopers carry Narcan for situations just like this. Last December, a trooper revived a 25-year-old man who overdosed at the Colman Dock in downtown Seattle.

In 2015, state lawmakers made it legal for first responders to carry Narcan, also known as naloxone. Police officers at departments from Seattle to Lewis County have saved dozens amid a nationwide heroin epidemic.

Caption: Narcan is displayed after a news conference to announce a program and pilot study in Hamilton County to more than quadruple distribution of the opioid overdose-reversing drug to 30,000 units in nasal spray form, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017, in Cincinnati. Attorney General Mike DeWine and representatives of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, BrightView Health and Adapt Pharma plan to dramatically expand availability of the drug in the southwest Ohio county stricken by increases in synthetic opioid abuse.

Photo by John Minchillo/Associated Press