CAR
RBORO — The Carrboro Police Department has become the first in North Carolina to prevent a drug overdose death with an antidote drug now being used by a handful of law enforcement agencies across the state.
A Carrboro officer was the first to arrive last week at a home off Old Fayetteville Road where a man in his early 30s had overdosed on heroin, according to police spokesman Capt. Chris Atack. The officer, Teresa Kernodle, administered naloxone, a drug that counteracts the effects of heroin and other opioid drugs, reversing the overdose until paramedics arrived and took the man to the hospital.
All Carrboro officers were trained in using naloxone and have been carrying it since October, Atack said. This was the first time an officer has had call to use it.
It’s also the first time a police officer has used the drug to reverse an overdose in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition, a public health and drug policy organization based in Durham that promotes and tracks the use of naloxone by law enforcement agencies.
