ERIE, Ohio — The Erie County Health Department is continues to do its part to tackle the opioid crisis in Erie County. Employees recently distributed around 600 artificial manual breathing unit bags to first responders.
"For the first time, especially coming out of COVID, it went the wrong way. We're starting to get it back into control again,” Assistant Health Commissioner Trey Hardy said.
These bags will allow first responders to resuscitate people who are in cardiac arrest or who have overdosed.
“We patrol a lot of rural areas of the county, so it can be several minutes before an ambulance gets to a scene, and we have had many situations where we have had to perform CPR for many minutes before an ambulance gets to the scene,” Erie County Sherif Paul Sigsworth said.
Sigsworth says this will give officers —who are usually first on scene— the opportunity to provide the maximum amount of air in every single breath and stabilize overdose victims until an ambulance arrives.
The health department also provided officers with medical tools in what they call Ambu bags. The bags include chest seals, bandages, trauma scissors, gloves and other supplies that allow officers to help victims.
“It’s a basic kit, but if they have some of the basic tools to help jump on scene first and get it going, then we're saving lives,” Hardy said.
The health department says the Ambu bag was already used to save a life after officers responded to an overdose victim and were able to give him two doses of Narcan and stabilize his breathing until paramedics arrived.
“On a formal law report, they mentioned the Ambu bag helped reverse the overdose,” said Behavioral Health Specialist Brendan McCormick.
Sigsworth says overdose numbers have gone down, but it is still their biggest issue in the county. The department is grateful for the tools they receive from the Erie County Health Department because it makes a difference.
“We are here to save lives; nobody gets into this job to watch somebody die in front of us. Obviously, we're not paramedics, we're not EMTs... we're not going to replace those folks, nor do we want to. But if there's something we can do to preserve life until they get there, that's what we're going to do,” Sigsworth said.
McCormick says the health department is working on grant-related counseling for first responders.
“The impact of everything that first responders have to do across the spectrum, let alone the overdose response, takes a toll on them,” McCormick said.
