Responding to an Opiate Overdose?
Any of the following symptoms occurring with heroin use (or other opioid) often in combination of other drugs or alcohol:
- Shallow breathing
- Difficulty breathing
- Turning blue
- Loss of consciousness
- Unable to be roused
Recognising Overdose: Signs of Unconsciousness
- Unrousable/unwakeable
- Snoring / Rasping breathing – ‘death rattle’
- Very slow and ultimately no breathing
- Turning blue/grey – around lips and fingers first (cyanosis)
- Cold to touch/clammy
- Pale
- Very small pupils
- Loose muscles – floppy
Things Not To Do
Inappropriate responses to overdose:
- Inflicting indiscriminate pain
- Putting people in a bath of cold water
- Walking people around
- Injecting salt
- Injecting amphetamines
- Rectal insertion of ice cream
Things To Do
- Approach with care
- Are there any hazards to you or the casualty?
- Check for danger and be careful with needles that might be around
- Try to wake person, call name, sterum rub, pinch ears, bed of finger nail…
- If unresponsive – CALL AN AMBULANCE
