AUGUSTA, Maine — A Maine Capital Police officer saved two men who were reportedly overdosing on opioids by using the life-saving overdose reversal antidote naloxone on June 24.
Officer Gary Boulet was patrolling near Riverview Psychiatric Center around 6 p.m. when a staff member, Eric Price, alerted Boulet to a car parked in the middle of Arsenal Road, a public road that runs adjacent to the facility.
When Boulet checked it out, he found two men passed out in the car, with needles scattered everywhere.
"I noticed needles on the ground, on the bottom of the vehicle, and needles on the passenger on his lap," Boulet said.
The man in the driver's seat was in agonal breathing, eyes rolling back in his head, and foaming at the mouth, Boulet said.
Boulet grabbed his medical kit, which contains four doses of the overdose reversal antidote, naloxone, known by the brand name, NARCAN. Two doses on the man did nothing.
"I was nervous. I'm not going to lie. But it kind of kicked in. I had to do something," Boulet said.
With direction from incoming firefighters, Boulet laid the man on the ground and gave him a third dose. It was only the second time he has ever administered it in his 30 years in law enforcement.
"I was getting nervous that he wasn't going to make it, so I was hoping that third dose would come around. And it took a little while, but it did its job properly," Boulet said. "He said, 'Thanks for saving me.'"
In April, Maine's Capital Police started carrying six total doses of naloxone (three boxes), up from four total doses, after an incident in the nearby town of Clinton in March, when officers responded to an unrelated incident of two men overdosing, and officers needed more than four doses of naloxone to revive them.
"All over the state, this is a daily occurrence sadly enough," Capital Police Chief Matthew Clancy said. "We want to make sure we're able to give those folks a fighting chance."
Clancy said first responders are having to use multiple doses of naloxone more frequently due to the strength of fentanyl, another drug being mixed into heroin and other drugs like methamphetamine.
Maine data show the state is on track to lose more people to deadly drug overdoses this year than ever before. Most of those overdoses involve fentanyl.
In May 2022, the state distributed more than 9,000 doses to people, law enforcement, and EMS staff in Maine.
In June 2022, EMS staff gave naloxone to 211 people who were overdosing, the most ever in a single month.
"Half the time, they don't even know what they're putting in their system," Clancy said.
Using naloxone to save people's lives gives them a chance to get into recovery and treatment programs.
"I'd want someone helping my family member if they were ever in those circumstances," Boulet said. "He's someone's son — could be a parent. You want him around."
The state plans to honor both Boulet and the Riverview staff member for their life-saving work.
Boulet said he talked with the men in the hospital about options for getting into treatment and recovery.