By Richard L. Gaw

Staff Writer

Corporal Jeffrey Call of the Kennett Township Police Department was the recipient of a life-saving award at the April 4 Board of Supervisors meeting, for his recent actions that saved the life of a 29-year-old woman

On April 3 at 4:27 a.m., Call responded to a 911 report in the vicinity of New Granite Way, found the woman to be unresponsive and not breathing, and determined that she was suffering from an opiate-related overdose.

Call immediately administered Naloxone to the woman, which reversed the deadly effects of the overdose. Soon, the woman had been revived and began regular breathing. This life-saving action took place five minutes after the 911 message was received by the department.

“We are very proud of you and of the department for the work that you are doing,” Board of Supervisors chairman Scudder Stevens told Call. “It is crucial to the lives and the well-being of the residents of this township, and we thank you for that.”

Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, among others, is a medication used to block the effects of opioids, especially during an overdose, and may also be combined with an opioid (in the same pill) to decrease the risk of misuse. Naloxone may administered intravenously and as nasal spray.

Patented in 1961 and approved for opioid overdose by the Food and Drug Administration in 1971, Naloxone has been used frequently in recent years in response to the rise in heroin and opioid use, and police departments across the country have implemented Narcan programs. Officers are often the first on the scene during an overdose incident.

Reports show that law enforcement Narcan programs have already saved thousands of lives across the country, and in 2017, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that 60,000 Naloxone kits would be made available to law enforcement agencies in all 67 counties over a two-year period. Each kit contains two four-milligram doses of Narcan.

In other Kennett Township Police Department business, Kevin Urbany was sworn in as a part-time officer, and Adam Cramer and Miguel Juarez were removed from probationary status in order to become full-time officers in the department.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].