A San Diego Sheriff's Deputy exposed to Fentanyl, incident captured by his Field Training Officer's (FTO's) body worn camera (BWC).



It took multiple doses of Naxalone (NARCAN) to reverse the effects.

To all of our first responders, be careful out there.

To the rest of our membership, be careful out there.

Scary as hell.
We were always taught that the half-life of a narcotic was greater than that of naloxone (Narcan); but this is a dramatic illustration of that. Incredible potency of fentanyl.

so did he just inhale some of the powder particles in the air?

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Scary as hell.
We were always taught that the half-life of a narcotic was greater than that of naloxone (Narcan); but this is a dramatic illustration of that.

Oh, definitely. Narcan is to buy time to get them to a higher level of care, and often requires repeated applications.

Think of it as delaying the effects of opiates, not curing them.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
so did he just inhale some of the powder particles in the air?

That, or touched it with his hands (he wasn't wearing gloves), or got some on his skin through other means. They didn't specify.

Fentanyl is able to be absorbed through the skin.

And it's so potent that it only takes a tiny amount (like a grain of sand) for a non-opiate addict to OD, stop breathing, and die.

Opiate addicts have built up a high physical tolerance to the chemicals, so can handle ingesting significantly larger concentrations of opiates before ODing than a non-user. (Much like an alcoholic can drink a larger amount of alcohol without developing alcohol poisoning or passing out, due to their developed tolerance.)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmH?

Wow, thanks for this link !

As a nurse anesthetist, I have given fentanyl ( I.V.) to folks young and old since 1982.... I have never seen a reaction like that. My best guess is that the street drug is either much more potent than pharmaceutical fentanyl or else what everyone calls "fentanyl" is actually some sort of derivative ( maybe "carfentanyl" ?).

Either way, this is a very impressive and dangerous chemical !! It definitely looks like an extremely potent opioid.

As a side note: Carfentanyl was invented about 30 years ago. About that same time, there was an incident in Russia where some Chechen rebels took over a theater and held a bunch of people hostage. The Russian government eventually flooded the HVAC system with a "drug" and everyone supposedly passed out and quit breathing. The plan was for the Russian military to then run in and inject ( save) all of the civilians with some sort of rescue drug. Many folks in the anesthesia biz always suspected that it was Carfentanyl followed by naloxone. Unfortunately the military was too slow and most of the hostages died.....Later, the Russians were as tight lipped as the Russians always are and the media lost interest.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmH?

I’ll refrain from further comment right now, would love to read a detailed report of what exactly happened and the test results of the substance, but I’ll repost what mike28w, whose probably had more experience with fentanyl than the rest of the board combined, said:

“ As a nurse anesthetist, I have given fentanyl ( I.V.) to folks young and old since 1982.... I have never seen a reaction like that.”

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Scary as hell.
We were always taught that the half-life of a narcotic was greater than that of naloxone (Narcan); but this is a dramatic illustration of that. Incredible potency of fentanyl.

We had a significant amount make it into our jail earlier this year and had multiple overdoses over the course of several weeks… multiple incidents had multiple subjects go down at the same relative time. I think in one case we had 4 inmates go down.

In some cases it took many doses of the nasal spray to gain any effect and then again, repeated doses as the inmates started to degrade.

We had just rolled out widespread distribution and training to our jail staff of the narcan and having it handy surely saved at least a few lives.

We get one or two a month now but during that spell it was double digits in less than 3 weeks.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

Indeed.

Something smells wrong...

Yeah, I’d bet a steak dinner that’s not regular fentanyl.

It was probably weed.

It's always weed's fault...

(I know nothing about Fentanyl. Seem scary as hell.)

Maybe his training officer was Alanzo Harris.

[

Whatever that was - not an expert - that's some scary stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by mike28w:
Wow, thanks for this link !

As a nurse anesthetist, I have given fentanyl ( I.V.) to folks young and old since 1982.... I have never seen a reaction like that. My best guess is that the street drug is either much more potent than pharmaceutical fentanyl or else what everyone calls "fentanyl" is actually some sort of derivative ( maybe "carfentanyl" ?).

I am most certainly not a street drug expert. In 17 years drugs have never been something that I was interested in concentrating on working. Having said that, it’s my understanding that the fentanyl being seen on the street is entirely different than the fentanyl that is made by legitimate pharmaceutical interests. It was once explained to me that the smallest amount, a single grain if you will, of fentanyl that is able to be synthesized is a potential overdose. That is why pharmaceutical companies would take synthesized fentanyl and use rotary evaporators to deposit the drug on a larger substrate so as to further “dilute” the drug for lack of a better term. That was the only way to safely provide the drug. Seeing as most of the fentanyl comes from either stateside illicit production or overseas or Mexican super lab illicit production, it would be naive to think that those illicit producers are taking the same steps as a company like Pfizer or Merck to ensure the safety of their product.

Jeepers the Chinese commies didn’t need the Wuflu to cripple the world. One little whiff & it’s curtains.

Here Hunter, try this, great buzz!

Did he poke a pinky into the bag and rub it on his gum like in the movies? Does anyone do that in reality? If he did, that might explain it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Lefty Sig,

We have had discussions on other cases of fentanyl contact overdoses on the forum in the past. One of the things that we rarely (or never) see is a lab report after the fact. The consensus being that many of the reported exposures are false alarms and overblow the actual risks.

https://www.rti.org/news/new-s...sk-fentanyl-overdose

quote:

Did is poke a pinky into the bag and rub it on his gum like in the movies? Does anyone do that in reality?

They haven't done that for a long time, and for this exact reason.