Two Overdoses Averted in Isla Vista

Sheriff’s deputies deployed the opioid overdose antidote Narcan two times last week in Isla Vista. Shortly after midnight on Thursday, deputies with the Isla Vista Foot Patrol substation answered a call from Trigo Road about a 20-year-old UCSB student who was unconscious. They arrived within minutes and found a prescription opioid medication near her. She had stopped breathing, and the deputies administered naloxone hydrochloride, which restarted her breathing, and County Fire took over. Ambulance personnel moved her to the hospital for further treatment.

The second incident occurred the next morning at about 1:30. Dispatch got a call from Sabado Tarde on March 8, and UCSB police officers and Sheriff’s deputies rolled out. They found an unconscious 21-year-old man and suspected drug overdose. After they administered naloxone HCl, he began to breathe again. He too was treated first by firefighter paramedics and then taken to the hospital by ambulance.

The Sheriff’s Office implemented Narcan training in April 2017 in response to the epidemic use of opioids and has used it about 19 times since then. In the county, 120 people had died of overdoses between 2012 and 2016. The county filed suit in February against pharmaceutical manufacturers, along with roughly 1,500 other local governments nationwide bringing suits alleging the drug makers concealed the addictive qualities of their products.