Bronx doctor touts importance of naloxone

<p>A doctor from St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx says it's important to know how to use drugs that reverse the effects of opioid overdoses like naloxone, especially when it comes to children.</p>

News 12 Staff

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Dec 13, 2017, 3:32 AM

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Updated 2,323 days ago

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A Bronx doctor is sharing important information about the life-saving drug naloxone after two children were treated for an overdose in two separate incidents.

Doctor Howard Greller of Saint Barnabas Hospital says the children, both 1 years old, were rushed to the hospital after coming in contact with heroin.

Greller says the children were both given naloxone, or Narcan, a opioid reversing drug that stops an overdose.

In one case, police say a man was using heroin when he spilled the contents on his bed and passed out to find his 1-year-old daughter had come in contact with the drugs.

In a similar case, police say a 1-year-old was walking with their parents in the Bronx when the child picked up a bag off the street which contained heroin residue and placed it in their mouth.

Greller says overdose symptoms are the same in children as they are in adults.

"The victim will become unresponsive or unconscious. Their pupils will become small, and they will have a difficult time breathing," Greller explains.

He says the key to saving a life is acting quickly to seek out treatment like the administration of naloxone.

"It does not have to be a doctor or a paramedic who administers the treatment of naloxone," he says. "It can be a parent, or a friend; someone who has access to it can use it to save a life."

Almost 100 pharmacies around the Bronx sell naloxone over the counter.