Melissa Blain – Nanaimo BC
Melissa Blain, a former nurse from the Ontario healthcare system, decided to retrain and change careers after surviving on the frontlines of the pandemic, only to be thrown into another crisis of overdoses due to toxic drugs. She recently sat down with us to discuss the pros and cons of nasal vs. intramuscular naloxone and what the key differences were based on her experience: Nasal is easier and safer for both the recipient and administrator. There is no arguing this.
A few advantages to nasal that Melissa highlights are:
• that nasal cuts the prep-time to virtually non-existent
• easy identification of administration location, which can save precious seconds, especially in the winter months when people are wearing layer on top of layer.
• no risk of sticking self as administrator
• less risk of transferring blood-borne viruses
• less risk of infection for recipient
• no need for proper sharps disposal
• less traumatic for administrator
As we listened to Melissa list reason after reason for nasal to be the preferred option, we immediately thought about how almost every one of these issues is multiplied on a construction site. Naloxone kits being kept in first-aid rooms that can be several dozen floors away from the person in need adds enough time between overdose and administration before even considering additional prep time. Cold, dirty hands could easily lead to failed injections, or cause infection at the injection site. Workers wearing harnesses over raincoats over jackets over sweaters, takes away easy access for administrating the needle.
More importantly, as someone who has been in trades his entire life, the trauma of watching someone I’ve worked with day in and day out for years on end overdose is enough for me to deal with without adding the anxiety of stabbing them with a needle.
Michael – Lower Mainland BC
This story was told to us by someone who lost their best friend. It was hard to hear and even harder to write. I can’t imagine how hard it was to tell, but this cause matters that much to some people. Last names have been excluded in respect to the family left behind.
Michael worked in the oil sands of Alberta before returning home to BC and the construction sector in 2017 when the bottom fell out of the Canadian oil industry. Eight years sober, Michael relapsed and within a month he was found on his knees, with his needle naloxone kit opened up beside him. He had passed away.
This is a person who spent his life working in two key industries for the Canadian economy. A person who showed up with flowers out of the blue when his closest friend of 20 years sounded a bit off on the phone. A person who despite taking the cautions of having a kit near by and attempting to use it, is now survived by his mother, his sister and his best friend who, for twenty years, he called Momma.
Now, instead of a friend who shows up no matter what without even being asked, Momma has a tattoo.
Angus McLeod RSE. Overdosed on fentanyl in 2015 on his way home from work. Survived. Currently employs 16 tradesmen in an industry that contributed $27 billion to British Columbia GDR in 2022. Angus was lucky. Many others weren’t, and their potential was buried with them