TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — 22 year old Holly Hughes wakes up feeling tired after listening to firetruck sirens go off all night outside her window.
“Lately I’ve been actually having trouble sleeping because I’ve been realizing the stuff that I’ve been through,” she said.
As she made her bed for what she was hoping would be a good night’s rest, she thought back to being drugged at 19 years old.
“I was feeling woozy, I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know where I was. I was scared,” Hughes said.
She doesn’t remember much, but thinks someone could have laced the marijuana she smoked with something like meth or fentanyl.
She was taken to the hospital and given Naloxone, a medication that reverses the side effects of drug overdoses.
“Ever since that day I’ve just woken up everyday saying you got to cherish life because anything can happen,” she said.
The Tucson Fire Department always has Naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, on hand in their trucks.
They said Narcan isn’t just used on people who use drugs.
“It could be grandma or grandpa or an older adult or someone accidentally thought they were taking their blood pressure medication, took too many Vicodin,” Tyler Berndt, their captain of safety and wellness said.
The Tucson Fire Department said they used Narcan over one thousand 4 hundred times in each of the past two years.
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced Naloxone will soon be available over the counter at places like drug stores, grocery stores, and even gas stations. They said they’re hoping manufacturers make it available as soon as possible and at an affordable price.
Berndt said that would give people an opportunity to save lives quicker.
“They’re there. They can be there faster than we can,” he said
Hughes looked back on how Naloxone gave her a second chance at life. She said without it she wouldn’t have gotten to do things like meet her fiance.
“If I didn’t get that, I would’ve been dead right now,” she said.
She said Naloxone soon being available over the counter would help people in her shoes.
“Take that. Do it. Because that might be the only chance you have at life,” she said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
