KDMC works with Ohio law enforcement to prevent drug overdose fatalities

King’s Daughters Medical Center is working with Ohio law enforcement to prevent deaths from opioid (heroin or prescription pain medication) drug overdose. The medical center will help supplylawenforcement agencies, officers with naloxone (also known as Narcan) a medication that can be administered intranasally to reverse an overdose caused by an opioid drug.

An official announcement is planned for 1 p.m. Thursday, May 21, at King’s Daughters Family Care Center in Ironton. King’s Daughters is partnering with the following law enforcement agencies in this program:

• Lawrence County Prosecutor's Office
• Lawrence County Sheriff's Office
• Ironton Police Department
• Hanging Rock Police Department
• Coal Grove Police Department
• South Point Police Department
• Chesapeake Police Department
• Proctorville Police Department

According to healthy.ohio.gov, naloxone has been used safely by emergency medical professionals for more than 40 years and has only this one critical function — to prevent opioid overdose death. Naloxone has no potential for abuse and is harmless if given to a person who is not experiencing opioid overdose. If given to a person who is dependent on opioids, naloxone will produce withdrawal symptoms, which though uncomfortable, are not life-threatening.

The naloxone program is one of several steps to address the alarming trend in drug overdose over the last decade, according to a report from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Ohio’s death rate due to unintentional drug overdoses, primarily from prescription drugs, increased 366 percent from 2000 to 2012. Beginning in 2012, a shift in the trend occurred with a leveling off of prescription opioid-related overdose deaths contrasted with a significant increase in heroin-related deaths.