Editor’s note: This article is by Taylor Reed, a staff writer at the Caledonian Record, in which it was first published Nov. 16, 2013.
Wayne Bassett, a Vietnam War veteran, unintentionally injected himself with a lethal dose of heroin in 2001 at his Danville home and died alone, excepting the family dogs.
His wife Nancy Bassett, a heroin addict herself, was in Connecticut serving nine months in rehab at the Federal Correctional Facility in Danbury. Her crime: transporting narcotics across state lines, a federal offense.
She was only days into the sentence when her husband overdosed.
She was permitted to attend his funeral. She wore a khaki prison suit and was escorted by a female officer from the Connecticut Department of Corrections.
“It was horrible. It was horrible. My son had just lost his father,” said Nancy Bassett, who is now the respected co-coordinator at Kingdom Recovery Center on Summer Street in St. Johnsbury. “I thought I was going to come home [from prison] and be with my husband who I had been with for 30 years, but I lost the love of my life.”
Nancy Bassett got clean in Danbury and stayed clean. She since dedicated her life to helping others achieve the same at the recovery center, which is the childhood home of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith, aka Dr. Bob.
Despite sobriety and good work, Nancy Bassett is still haunted by her husband’s overdose.
“I will always feel guilty because I wasn’t there,” she said. “If I had been there. If I had Narcan. Maybe I could have revived him.”
She recounted the experience this week from her tiny office at the recovery center upon news that Narcan, an overdose antidote long administered by doctors and EMTs, is going mainstream. A new state of Vermont pilot program aims to distribute Narcan to addicts, their friends and family.
Narcan, funded by the Vermont Department of Health, will arrive in weeks at the Good Neighbor Health Clinic in White River Junction and at the Howard Center in Burlington. The organizations will distribute the drug.
Doctors can prescribe Narcan too.
The drug may someday be available in St. Johnsbury at the Vermont CARES needle exchange program on Hospital Drive, according to state officials.
The Narcan pilot project is mandated by new legislation called Act 75. It’s squarely aimed at curbing drug abuse and enhancing treatment resources.
Nancy Bassett is delighted with the legislation, especially the Narcan piece. Easy access to Narcan will certainly save lives and reduce stress for families and addicts, she said.
“It is a relief for any family member to know there is something they can do immediately if that horrible occasion might occur,” she said. “Families are always worried about their loved one overdosing. It would be hugely comforting for them to have Narcan.”
Families and friends can administer the drug rather than wait idly for paramedics to arrive and do it, she said. Emergency response times can be slow in rural Vermont, making Narcan availability particularly important here, she said.
Narcan is comforting for addicts too. That’s a fact Nancy Bassett knows firsthand.
Her drug stash in the 1990s included illegally acquired Narcan. It was stolen before her husband’s overdose though.
“Having it did give us peace of mind that if either one of us went out, overdosed, there was something we could do,” she said. “I just liked having it around. Calling 911 is a scary thing for something like that.”
Vermont’s timing for Narcan distribution is spot on, Nancy Bassett said. Heroin is back in St. Johnsbury and statewide.
“Heroin use is high again,” she said. “It’s way up.”
Here, St. Johnsbury’s location on Interstate 91 is largely responsible, she speculates. The road provides easy access for drug distributors from cities like Springfield, Mass.; Hartford, Conn.; and Providence, R.I., she said.
Heroin has been in St. Johnsbury for decades, she said. “It just wasn’t always so easy to get a hold of.”
Heroin grew more prevalent locally in the 1970s but was still relatively obscure, she said. A heroin epidemic erupted in the 1990s. “It was such a huge problem then, and I was part of it.”
Heroin’s revival may be entwined with prescription drug abuse.
“People sometimes get started with a prescription drug,” Nancy Bassett said. “Maybe they had surgery, or whatever, and they find out they really like it. Later they have to buy it on the street. Then they can’t find what they’re looking for and someone says, ‘Take this,’ and it’s heroin.”
Chris Bell, director of emergency medical services at the Vermont Department of Health, said Narcan will be available next month in Burlington and White River Junction.
“They’re just going to hand it out to folks,” he said. “So if people are with someone who is experiencing an overdose they can administer the medicine to potentially save the person’s life.”
People will receive Narcan atomizers, Bell said. It is nasally administered.
Narcan must accompany a call to 911, Bell said. The atomizer can reverse an overdose but opiates in the addict’s system may outlast the Narcan dose, he said.
Doctors and emergency medical technicians have successfully used Narcan, a trademark of naloxone, since the 1960s, Bell said. The drug is traditionally administered with a needle but atomizers are safer for use by people lacking medical training, he said.
Mike Leyden, deputy director of emergency medical services at the department of health, is an expert on the state’s Narcan pilot program, which is a three year effort. Leyden as a paramedic has even administered Narcan to overdose patients. “It works remarkably well,” he said.
The Narcan atomizer looks like a syringe with a nostril adapter instead of a needle. Pressing the plunger expels a fine mist of Narcan. Atomizers are basically fool proof, Leyden said. “It’s a good reliable safe route.”
Tutorials will accompany Narcan distribution. Narcan kits are packaged with instructions in English and Spanish, and picture instructions.
In an overdose situation, suppressed breathing is the primary danger, Leyden said. People typically become unconscious for lack of air and are unresponsive to shouting and pinching. Narcan reverses that opiate effect, slowly reviving the overdose patient, he said.
Leyden expects widespread Narcan availability will save Vermont lives. “This is an ultimate safety net concept,” he said. “These drugs, legal or illegal, have a pretty good track record of killing people.”
Narcan distribution essentially represents an extension of 911 emergency services, Leyden said. People surrounding addicts can administer Narcan faster than a responding paramedic.
Dr. Thomas Ziobrowski from Kingdom Internal Medicine in St. Johnsbury expects widespread Narcan availability will save lives. He supports the state’s Narcan pilot project.
“I think it’s a safety issue,” Ziobrowski said. “Ideally, it would not be necessary at all. Hopefully it will never be needed.”
Narcan use should always accompany a 911 call, Ziobrowski said. Only a doctor can determine appropriate dosing, he said.
Narcan for decades has been used in the United State and Europe, Ziobrowski said. Hospitals commonly administer it when patients get too much morphine, he said.
“Narcan was around when I was training 40 years ago,” Ziobrowski said. Narcan is not a drug of abuse, it’s counterproductive for addicts, he explained. “If you’re an addict you don’t want to be given Narcan because it precipitates a withdrawal.”
Michael Wright, a veteran paramedic and executive director of St. Johnsbury-based CALEX Ambulance Service, said Narcan is nothing new to paramedics. He has administered it “lots” of times and said the drug is very effective. “It’s one of the medications our crews have carried for many years… It’s very safe.”
It is so safe that paramedics sometimes administer Narcan when treating people who are unconscious for unknown reasons, he said.
The legislation, according to the state of Vermont is an “act relating to strengthening Vermont’s response to opioid addiction and methamphetamine abuse. This act provides a comprehensive approach to combating opioid addiction and methamphetamine abuse in Vermont.”
It covers myriad issues like community safety, prescription-drug abuse prevention, improving access to recovery services with a new initiative called Hub and Spoke, and regulating the sale of secondhand items and precious metals at places like pawn shops.
The legislation covers Narcan, an opioid antagonist, in depth.
A state issued summary reads, “The act requires the department of health to establish a three year statewide opioid antagonist pilot program for the purpose of distributing opioid antagonists to persons at risk of overdose, and to family, friends and others in a position to help such persons. The department shall purchase, provide for the distribution of and monitor opioid antagonists distributed through the pilot program. It shall also report to the General Assembly regarding the cost and effectiveness of the program….[Act 75] allows health care professionals acting in good faith to prescribe, dispense and distribute an opioid antagonist to a person at risk of experiencing an opioid overdose or to a family member, friend or other person in a position to help such a person, so long as the recipient of the opioid antagonist has completed a prevention and treatment training program approved by the department of health. Unless acting recklessly, with gross negligence or intentional misconduct, a health professional who prescribes, dispenses or distributes an opioid antagonist under this section shall be immune from civil or criminal liability regardless of whether the opioid antagonist was administered by or to the person for whom it was provided. The act dictates that, unless acting recklessly, with gross negligence or intentional misconduct, a person who has received an opioid antagonist is free from civil or criminal liability for administering it to a person who he or she believes is experiencing an opioid related overdose. If medical assistance has not yet been sought, a person shall call emergency services after administering an opioid antagonist.”
