Dr. Stephanie Widmer

They can have slurred speech.

Very often you'll hear the term pinpoint pupils.

People's pupils become very constricted, small to the size of like a pin.

Wow.

And as opioid toxicity progresses, their breathing can become very slow and shallow.

You can hear choking noises, gurgling sounds.

And when the breathing comes very close to a stop, you can see their skin turn kind of gray and their fingers turn blue because of a lack of oxygen.

So if you are ever concerned that somebody has potentially overdosed on opioids, you check to see if they're responding.

If they're not responding...

call for help, call 911.

We all have cell phones.

Put the phone on speaker, 911.

lay the person on their back.

And if you have access to Narcan or Naloxone, Narcan is the brand name.

If you have access to Narcan, this is what it looks like, but you're going to essentially spray it in their nostril.

It comes in a four milligram dose and there's one dose here.

So don't kind of push on the plunger until you're ready to use it because it's one and done unless you have more, of course.

Naloxone is the reversal agent for opioid toxicity.

It

it reverses an opioid overdose.