Ocean County officials equip high school nurses with Narcan

The trail that Ocean County blazed into heroin overdose reversals, now extends to its high schools.

Nurse-educators attending a conference today at Georgian Court University in Lakewood are receiving training to administer the antidote Narcan (naloxone,) along with sample kits to bring back to their campuses.

The workshop was organized by County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato, who notes that Ocean is the first county in New Jersey to extend Narcan availability and training to school nurses as a matter of policy.

Adapt Pharma supplies the complimentary kits for nurses in the training session, taking place under the auspices of county school officials.

The effort supplements Coronato's efforts to stem the tide of overdose casualties, which stands at 180 in Ocean County during 2016, with a month left in the year.

That figure eclipses previous years, and a longer view illustrates the flood of heroin that's enveloped the county: 118 overdoses in 2015; 101 in 2014; 112 in 2013; 53 in 2012.

Heroin overdose rescues, education, therapy and prevention have been Coronato's signature objective since assuming the post in 2013. It is complicated by the introduction of exponentially more powerful synthetics, most notably fentanyl.

Nonetheless, county and local law enforcement successfully revived 129 overdose victims between Narcan's introduction in April 2014 to the end of that year. There were 272 revivals in 2015 and, so far this year, 445 reversals.