Opioid overdoses: Beaufort County medics use Narcan twice in 24-hour period

Beaufort County emergency medical personnel used the drug Narcan twice in a 24-hour period earlier this week to reverse the effects of opioid drug overdoses.

The first incident occurred Wednesday evening in greater Bluffton, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report released Friday.

Deputies found a Ridgeland man slumped in the driver’s seat of a pick-up truck parked on the shoulder of U.S. 278 just west of the Hilton Head Island bridges, the report said.

A gray dog was sitting in the passenger seat next to the man, who “was unconscious and unresponsive,” according to the report.

The man’s lips began turning blue, and the deputy administered two doses of Narcan, the brand name of a drug called nalaxone that is used to revive unconscious overdose victims.

The driver then started taking “short breaths,” the report said.

When medics arrived soon after, they gave man more Narcan and took him to the Hilton Head Island Hospital. The dog was picked up by Beaufort County Animal Control staff.

On Thursday morning, deputies were called to a Hilton Head Island home where a man was found by a family member “laying on the floor of the shed ... not responsive to voice or touch,” according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report released Friday.

Medics were already on the scene and had administered a dose of Narcan. The man was then taken to Hilton Head Island Hospital.

Friends and family members told deputies that the man who overdosed has struggled with addiction to opioid pain pills “for some time and had been having withdrawals when trying to quit,” the report said.

As of Monday, the Sheriff’s Office’s Forensic Services Laboratory has investigated 25 cases related to drug overdoses this year. The actual number of drug overdoses in the county is higher, however, since not every case has the evidence required to perform a laboratory investigation, sheriff’s office spokesman Bob Bromage said earlier this week.

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Opioid overdoses: Beaufort County medics use Narcan twice in 24-hour period."