Topton gets new tool in heroin fight

Feb. 17--Around Topton, attempting to rescue someone from the throes of a life-threatening heroin or opiate overdose has become as quick as the countdown "five, four, three, two, one."

Those are the words emitted by a new-to-market prescription drug-injecting device as it is put to use by jamming it against the patient's leg.

Sixteen of the devices -- named Evzio and sold by the privately held Virginia pharmaceutical company Kaleo Inc. -- were just made available through a grant by Kaleo for use by the Topton Community Ambulance Service and Topton Volunteer Fire Company.

They will be put to use by trained members of the two agencies starting March 1 around Topton, perhaps the hardest-hit area of Berks County in terms of fatal heroin and prescription opiate abuse.

"We have all been on them," said Daryl George, assistant fire chief, referring to emergency calls where patients ultimately died from heroin overdoses. "This is big for us."

Evzio injectors contain naloxone, a generic medication that can halt serious symptoms of overdoses of opiates like heroin, including suppressed breathing.

Each injector contains a tiny speaker that issues real-time instructions on how to use it.

Twenty-six deaths in Berks were attributed to heroin or heroin-related causes in 2014.

Tyler Bard, Topton Community Ambulance Service chief of EMS, said five people in his company's service area died from heroin overdoses.

In November, then-Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law a measure that intended to make naloxone more available to properly trained emergency personnel, including police and firefighters. Previously, in most situations only paramedics and doctors were allowed to administer the medication.

Since then, first responders have sought appropriate training and supplies of naloxone, which generally comes in two forms.

One is a liquid-filled syringe which, when fitted with a special nozzle, can propel a medicine-filled mist into the nostril of the patient. The other is the Evzio, which, when jammed against the patient's leg for a count of five, injects the naloxone directly into the body.

The liquid-filled syringe and nozzle may cost $60 or less. The Evzio is much more expensive. One Berks pharmacist on Monday quoted a retail cash price of $619.

According to Bard, Topton received its 16 devices directly from Kaleo through a grant.

Bard said the most pressing medical need during an opiate overdose is restoring proper breathing. If the first dose does not work, he said, a second one will be administered.

Bard said a pattern has emerged in local heroin deaths. The patient, he said, most often is a person who used heroin regularly, went through treatment and was temporarily free of the drug, then relapsed.

"That's the common theme," he said. "They try to be 'clean' and then they take it again."

Contact Ford Turner: 610-371-5037 or fturner@readingeagle.com.

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