Police manage to help a man regain consciousness after he overdosed on opiates in the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree City, Georgia.
Police received a call about a man needing medical assistance at a Days Inn hotel, on Feb. 6. They arrived and began CPR, and were preparing an external defibrillator before realizing the man could possibly be a drug overdose victim, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
The body cam footage shows officers working quickly to grasp the critical moments that could determine whether the overdose victim lives or dies. They decided to use the opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan.
“Initially, they weren’t sure,” Lt. Odilia Bergh of the Peachtree City Police Department told Fox 5. “The nice thing about Narcan is if you don’t need it, it’s not going to hurt you. The moment that they started asking investigatory questions, nothing made sense. So, the officers wanted to make sure they took all precautions.”
The footage was posted to the Facebook page of the Peachtree City Police Department and Peachtree City Fire Rescue, interspersed with messages telling the extent of the opioid epidemic in Georgia and across the United States.
Police said that assuming the man had overdosed and applying the proper procedures for such a situation was the right thing to do, according to Fox News.
After the man came to, police were able to investigate the source of his drug purchase and arrest the sellers.
The officers had to perform CPR before the man was able to regain a heartbeat and consciousness. Peachtree City Police give credit to being equipped with drugs that can handle an opioid overdose, Fox reported.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, Georgia law protects people seeking assistance for drug and alcohol overdose in order to encourage people to call 911. Even in the case of potential drug possession charges or violations of parole, probation, and the like, legal consequences are minimized.
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