For the first school year, Milford’s youngest students’ campuses have a life-saving tool on hand to help fight the opioid crisis
It’s a dose of reality Milford Battalion Chief of Emergency Medical Services Daniel Wassmer says some families may not be aware of.
"Everybody's got a potential exposure," Wassmer said.
Wassmer says even elementary school students are at risk of exposure to the opioid epidemic.
"Anybody from a parent or a visitor, a staff member or even a child experimenting or stealing something out of the medicine cabinet just to see what it does," Wassmer said.
"It went into effect at the start of the academic year," Deepa Joseph said.
Milford Public Schools is one of the first districts in the state to provide Narcan at all of its 14 schools including its elementary campuses.
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"We felt that it was important for our school nurses to have a tool in the event that someday they came upon an emergency within their schools," Joseph said.
While Joseph, Director of Health at the Milford Health Department, says the district hasn’t seen any opioid overdose cases, its nurses are now prepared to administer the life-saving medication.
"That unit that the nurses have is a very simple unit," Wassmer said.
Wassmer says Milford EMS administers Narcan anywhere from several times a month to several times a week and having nurses equipped with its power could potentially save students’ lives when the call comes in after the bell rings
"By the time you recognize that somebody is in crisis and that somebody has a problem, then you call 911 the whole thing is processed it could be 10 to 12 minutes before help actually arrives," Wassmer said.
Wassmer says teachers will be trained next on how to administer Narcan.
