A woman working to serve the needy at Saint Vincent de Paul in Middletown has saved not just one life but two in just the past week.
“It’s a soup kitchen but that’s just how we lure people in--- with the food, but we also do community outreach,” said Lisa Magee-Corvo, the food services manager at St. Vincent de Paul.
Last week in preparation for her new role as food services director, Magee-Corvo took training on how to administer the life-saving drug Narcan.
“Two days later, there was a situation, and I thought, ‘is this a test. Is this a part of the training?’”
But it was not a test. A woman overdosed in the soup kitchen.
“I went through everything they trained me to do less than 24 hours earlier,” Magee-Corvo said.
Magee-Corvo gave her a dose of Narcan and began CPR.
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“She was blue,” she said. “Her pulse was weak and she was losing color.”
After she gave a second dose, first responders arrived and took the woman to the hospital.
“I’m just grateful that I work in a place that offers that kind of training,”
It wasn’t the only time Magee-Corvo needed to administer Narcan. She said a man overdosed here Wednesday.
“I tried to do the same thing I did on Thursday and luckily it was successful,” she said.
St Vincent de Paul Director Mary Ellen Shuckerow says the opioid crisis is an epidemic.
“It’s crossing all socio-economic boundaries,” Shuckerow said.
In these cases, having the drug on hand and proper training available to staff saved lives.
