By Alissa Widman Neese, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – Columbus’ assistant health commissioner was working late Wednesday, editing a physician notice about the deadly strain of heroin flowing through the city, when she heard a man cry for help.
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Nancie Bechtel ran outside and found the man, who had driven a woman to the Columbus Public Health parking lot. She was slumped over in the car, unconscious and purple.
“A security guard … laid her on the pavement in the pouring rain,” said Bechtel, a registered nurse who administered CPR and naxalone, a narcotic overdose treatment, until paramedics arrived.
In the process, the woman’s heart stopped three times.
“All I could think was ‘I hope someday this woman gets the help she needs.’”
Minutes earlier, the woman had shot up at a nearby gas station, according to the friend who found her and drove her to the health department.
It’s a story that’s becoming all too familiar to health officials, law enforcement and first responders in central Ohio.
Between 8:00 a.m. Tuesday and 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, 27 people overdosed in the city, prompting police and health officials to issue a public warning Tuesday night and host a news conference Wednesday.
A second wave of 21 people, including the person Bechtel and health department employees saved, were treated between 8:00 a.m. Wednesday and 8:00 a.m. Thursday, according to Columbus Division of Fire.
Columbus fire battalion Chief Steve Martin said in each case, police officers and paramedics administered naloxone, also called by the brand name Narcan, to revive the victims.
Typically, Martin said, emergency responders treat eight or nine drug overdoses each day. “This is a big red flag,” he said.