The former California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance is calling for airlines to carry the anti-overdose drug naloxone after she says a man overdosed in the bathroom on a plane.
Lynne Lyman took to Twitter on Saturday to say the man was found on her Delta flight with a needle in his arm and passed out in the bathroom. “The plane didn’t have a #NarcanKit. The paramedics took 10 minutes to arrive. They just carried him out in a body bag,” Lyman stated.
In response, Sara Nelson, the President of the Association of Flight Attendants, agreed with Lyman on the need for “proper tools.”
“Appreciate @lynnelyman sharing this tragic experience. Flight Attendants are aviation’s first responders and we need the proper tools to respond and save lives. In the air there are no options. I’m so sorry for you, Lynne, and the crew and other passengers who had to watch this.”
FOX 17 News asked Addiction Campuses locally what may be slowing up the process of getting naloxone on commercial flights.
“There’s a big responsibility there to who would bare the cost, who would pay for that, who would train the flight crew on how to use it, who would pay for that training,” Erika Lathon with Addiction Campuses explained.
“So, I think cost is probably the biggest factor.”
In a 2018 report from EMS World, a Delta spokesperson had previously stated the airline planned on including Narcan in first-aid kits, starting to do so towards the end of 2018.
FOX 17 News reached out to Delta for comment and was told by a communications representative “over the year they will be adding Narcan to emergency medical response kits on flights. We are starting to roll it out,” the representative stated.
While they could not confirm the medical details of the incident, Delta did say there was an incident on flight 2531 from Boston to Los Angeles on July 13.
by Adrian Mojica
Source: mycbs4.com
