flying speed tripping strung out. You meet him somewhere

in the middle of his journey. You don't know

where he's coming from. Ah, where he's going

, you've reached him at a turning point that can

lead him back or lose him. And the only

sign post you can see says overdose. Um feta

means alcohol. Aspirins, hash, glue, horse

mescal in phencyclidine, THC uppers, downers, hallucinogens

, medicines, booze, hard drugs. There are

a lot of different ways to start the OD trip

, but they lead to a common destination. Almost

all overdose deaths come from hypoxia. Lack of oxygen

caused by depressed breathing. Every overdose victim, no

matter what he's taken, may need your help to

keep breathing. That's the fundamental fact of OD emergency

treatment. You begin, of course, with ABC

Airway breathing circulation, but more than a pulse,

you'll need to check blood pressure. Get an exact

systolic value you can use as a baseline to monitor

any changes for the overdose. Victim is on a

trip. He may not stay where you find him

when you first come on the scene. He may

be stable for a while, then plunge into a

respiratory depression spiral that unchecked leads to death. Check

his level of consciousness. If he's drowsy, he'll

react to voice. Hey, wake up, leave

me a lot or give a vocal reaction to pain

. Uh, don't okay, you can tell if

he's pretending unconsciousness by a quick lift of the eyelids

. The comatose victim look straight ahead. The pretender

tries to hide. Another good check is the arm

drop. The pretender is careful to protect himself.

The rial one isn't. If the victim is truly

unconscious, you take the most important step in overdose

treatment. The bag mask oxygen alone is not enough

. Overdose of any kind affects the brain to press

his breathing causes. Ah, hypoxia spiral. Lack

of oxygen leads to lower breathing, which in turn

reduces oxygen intake even further. This is the only

way to make sure that oxygen gets into his system

. You have to assist. It's important to measure

the level of consciousness right away so you can determine

his condition and spot any later change. The lightly

comatose victim has a defensive reaction to pain stimulus.

If he's mawr comatose, his reaction may be non

defensive movement unrelated to the location of the pain.

And if he's in deep coma. He's very close

to death, and there may be no physical reaction

at all. Whatever his level of consciousness, be

alert for changes. If he goes any deeper,

call the hospital at once. As soon as you've

taken care of the victims. Immediate needs make a

quick assessment of the situation. Is it O D

or illness or trauma or a combination? If there

are witnesses, ask questions. What happened? Hey

. Passed out how long ago? He's 20 minutes

ago? No, he hit it head on anything

. When he fell, he fell flat backwards.

He didn't hit anybody pretty hard when he landed.

Have you been drinking it all the day? Way

? Split a pitcher of beer during lunch. Just

the one. Just one Just Is it gonna be

okay? I think so. Does he have any

medical problems? Does he take any pills or anything

? Yeah, he does. I saw him take

a couple right after he got back from lunch.

You know what he takes? I really don't know

. They're on the dresser. I'll see. Frequently

. You'll find there's more than one substance. Alcohol

and tranquilizers, diet pills and narcotics. Every imaginable

mixture. If there's time look around for bottles,

pills, anything the victim might have ingested. But

don't lose time. Playing Sherlock Holmes at the risk

of the victim's life where his trip started doesn't matter

as much as where he's headed right now because you're

traveling with him on the way in, check his

vital signs again and again. Monitor for any downward

trend. Here's where that systolic blood pressure can alert

you to sudden changes in his status. Any overdose

victim Oh did on any substance can seem okay one

minute and take a plunge toward hypoxia the next.

If you missed the signs, you may miss the

point where he turns off permanently. These are the

five key steps to bringing your overdose victim in alive

. Check the airway breathing and circulation. Determine his

level of consciousness. Assist breathing with a bag mask

if he's unconscious. Assess the situation for possible trauma

, illness and how much of what was taken when

most important, monitor his vital signs. Is he

going up or down? His life may depend on

your knowing the answer. Let's look at the outlines

of a few OD calls situations that actually happened.

Watch how the NTS handled each call and ask yourself

What would you do? We'll start with the case

of the happy kid. Gonna be okay, e

. I'm gonna call your folks. If you throw

up, maybe you'll feel better. Sometimes it helps

. You're What do we have here? No,

He's like he's kind of wiped out. How you

doing? Mhm. Did you drink all this?

Do you drink this? I think so. Thank

you. Thank you a long way. Didn't see

anybody want came on. You get his name by

any chance? He wasn't very talkative. I'm not

saying much. I think you'll be OK. Oh

, yeah. I think he's probably just trouble.

I don't envy him. He's gonna have quite ahead

tomorrow. Remember your first time? Yeah. Barely

. Yeah. Everybody has to learn the hard way

. Really? I don't think I'll forget about this

for a while. Blood pressure is good at Pulse

is going to How do you find this? Folks

or the hospital will take care of that. They'll

never find done. I think on the way back

right up front with you. Just let Junior sleep

it off in the back. Okay? Okay.

Good luck. Junior didn't get a hangover. He

was dead on arrival at the hospital. What would

you have done to prevent it? The empty bottle

was a good indication that he might have taken a

lethal dose of alcohol. The victim's age was a

good indicator that he could have a low tolerance for

alcohol and no judgment in using it. An assessment

of the situation would have pointed to acute overdose.

Ah, second check of his vital signs would have

discovered his abrupt plunge into hypoxia. And a breathing

assist from the bag mask would have saved his life

. Then there's the case of Sherlock Holmes on the

suicide attempt. Laura. Laura? Has she said

anything since you've been here? Bill, Jonah came

as soon as you called, and I found her

like this. Laura, do you want me to

call her? Folks know. Please leave them out

of this way. You She took a whole bunch

of pills. You know how long ago I talked

to on the phone? About 15 minutes ago.

She called me and she was really groggy then.

So I got here about 10 minutes ago and she

was laying just like that. You know why she

took him? We had a fight last night.

She got really upset. And I I think that's

why she's gonna be OK. She's gonna be alright

. Her pulse is good. Strong. Have you

any idea what she talked? Just what's here?

Yeah, about 1 10 of a 60. Her

pupils are big and awful sluggish that any sleeping pills

? There she takes tranquilizers. I think there's a

medicine cabinet. Something called jalape. Urano. Okay

, ampicillin. Listen. Durbin Durbin. What do

you think? A whole bunch of different ones in

there. These you ever heard of anything? P

N v k. Listen, Dilantin, do it

. This woman recovered, but they came close to

losing her. What would you have done? It's

what you wouldn't do that would help her. You

wouldn't waste time playing Sherlock Holmes with a comatose victim

needing a bag mask and a fast trip to the

hospital. The wide variety of common drugs and all

their combinations make on the spot. Diagnosis difficult.

Dilated pupils can indicate alcohol or stimulants or hallucinogens,

or they could mean your patient has died. While

you were guessing in any overdose situation, the most

important thing to assess is the victim's condition and needs

. How about the case of the snoring. Derelict

. Hi, fellas. Readings. What we got

here from another drunk. Another drunk? Yeah.

He you sit. You know him? Yeah.

Yeah. His name is Lenny. He hangs around

the neighborhood quite a bit. Watch out for this

. Yeah, One of the local juicers, Uh

, quality of is alcohol has improved that we go

through flying to Brandy. Yeah, top shelf.

Yeah. Yeah, I saw him about an hour

ago. He was pretty loaded then. I I

came back here and there. He has passed out

. This'll isn't the first time he's done it.

Oh, no. They come and get him a

couple of times a month. Mhm. False is

about 90 90. Okay, you guys are new

around here, right before this part of town.

You'd recognize him. Okay. You want to give

us a hand lifted him up here? Yeah.

Why not? About 1. 45 will be.

That sounds pretty good. Doesn't look like a lightweight

. Of course. You ready? Okay. Go

. Oh, right. What do you What do

you do with him now? All were taken on

the detox. Let me sleep it off. Well

, I appreciate you coming to get me, literally

. Look it. He sleeps and you guys gotta

work. This man might have slept longer than anyone

anticipated. And not because of a no overdose.

What would you have done when you assess the situation

, you'd have added up the broken bottle on the

nearby steps to get a good possibility of a hard

fall and resulting trauma an assessment confirmed by a check

on his level of consciousness. Deep coma, indicating

a probable head injury. As for his peaceful snoring

, it was a sure sign that his tongue was

dropping back to include his airway. Let's look at

, um, or common situation. Call it the

case of Dr Killed Air and the good horse.

Come on, wake up. Come on. Lose

somebody here to help you. Come on, sweetie

himself. What happened? It's all my fault.

I just wanted to be special. Has been called

, went out to eat and have, like,

just passed out. How long has he been drinking

? We've been drinking all night. What is that

? How long would you pass out? About 20

minutes ago. He also did a little bit of

heroin. How much? Just a little. He's

snorted a little happened like this one. He's done

it before. Yeah, but it never come on

. Wake up. Showed that it would make him

feel good, but it didn't. Come on,

John, Wake up. Okay. Is there anything

I should do? It. I make some coffee

or no coffee would help him. Is he gonna

be all right? Come on, now. Wake

up here. Yeah, he'll be okay. I

wanna hold his head up, Please. Come on

, honey. We'll be all right. 1 20

of but over 70. Pulse is good, too

. Comes removal. Yeah. Mom, Stretcher.

Thank you. Thank you. You know, one

of go. Yes. Come on, John.

Wake up here. Try to keep awake when you're

riding with him. Alright, Get a MALP aided

points here. That's systolic. About 1 15 trip

. Done. Hey, John. You saw them

go through all the right steps. Airway breathing,

circulation, level of consciousness. Assisting breathing with the

bag mask. Assessing the situation, questioning the witnesses

, identifying the drugs, even rechecking the vital signs

to determine his trend. What else would you do

at this point? You'd stop wasting time playing.

Doctor killed air and get him to the hospital as

long as you keep a close watch on him on

route. Keeping him awake is less important than keeping

him alive. More important than any list of steps

or rules or do's and dont's in overdose situations.

Keep them breathing. Do you get them in?

And the most effective diagnostic and treatment tool you can

work with is your common sense.