By Police1 Staff
ALBERTA, Canada — A Royal Canadian mounted officer and a civilian are credited with saving a man who was overdosing on fentanyl in the bed of a pickup truck.
According to CBC News, police were flagged down on Sept. 28 after a driver said a 27-year-old man was overdosing on fentanyl inside her truck.
The victim was unresponsive and had no pulse.
“He was not breathing,” Alberta RCMP Cpl. Laurel Scott told the publication. “He was having issues — clearly in medical distress.”
As the officer assisted the man on the side of the road, a civilian pulled up to report she had been in a collision. Once the woman saw what was happening, she assisted the officer by performing CPR on the OD victim.
Once it was determined the victim needed to be hospitalized, the officer and the woman put the man in the bed of the truck - and continued treatment as the truck sped to a hospital.
“We face all sorts of circumstances every day but for a civilian to step in without being asked and to assist us that way, that really is fantastic,” Scott said.
According to CBC News, the officer did not have a naloxone kit on him at the time.
“There’s now been a rollout for the RCMP nationally that we are equipped to carry naloxone,” Scott said. “It’s an effective counter to someone who’s in medical distress having had a fentanyl overdose. So now our members are carrying that and are trained to administer it.”
The man was treated at a hospital and has since recovered.