ISLA VISTA, Calif. (AP) - The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office says deputies equipped with an anti-opioid medication helped save suspected overdose victims twice this week.
The office says deputies responded at 1:30 a.m. Friday to a report of a 21-year-old man unconscious and not breathing in Isla Vista.
Suspecting a drug overdose, they administered a dose of naloxone hydrochloride and the victim began to breathe on his own before medics took him to a hospital.
About 24 hours earlier, deputies in Isla Vista similarly revived a 20-year-old woman who was found unresponsive with prescription opioid medication nearby.
The opioid epidemic has been declared a national public health emergency.
According to the federal government, some 47,600 Americans died of opioid overdoses in 2017.
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