Adele overdoses the first time she takes heroin
Preferred Name: Adele
Gender: Female
Age: Early 40s
Who is Adele?
Adele lives alone in an inner-north Melbourne suburb. She describes her ethnic background as ‘Australian’: like both her parents, Adele was born in Australia. Adele is studying for a Certificate IV in Alcohol and Other Drugs and volunteers at a number of organisations. She has one young child and her primary source of income is a Commonwealth Disability Support Pension. Adele isn’t currently using heroin but thought she would access take-home naloxone if she started again.
Brief Outline:
Adele describes an occasion when she took heroin for the first time and overdosed. She was in her ex-partner’s bedroom and had already taken another substance when she took the heroin. She immediately felt unwell, lay back on the bed and was later told that she turned blue. An ambulance was called and paramedics gave her naloxone, which revived her. She was left feeling in shock, and she later found she felt the same way after other experiences with overdose, including reviving a man she came across in a stairwell. After experiencing several overdoses herself and being present at others, she believes take-home naloxone and overdose response training should be more widely promoted.
Apparently, I went blue within seconds. Paul’s parents came in and said to him, ‘You bloody idiot, call the ambulance’, but all I remember is waking up, being injected with Narcan, like a gasp of breath. I was shaking all over, in shock, and disoriented for the rest of the night. I was scared to go to sleep.
That was the first time I overdosed, out of five times, and I’ve also been there when other people have overdosed several times. It’s scary to watch someone overdose; basically they’ve died. I’ve had the experience of having to give mouth-to-mouth to a person and they’ve come alive due to that, and another time I’ve had to call an ambulance for someone overdosing, and then overdosed myself after calling.
Once, I threw water over a guy who I came across in the stairwell of a high-rise public housing block where a lot of overdoses occur. I shook him and felt for a pulse. When I couldn’t feel a pulse, I got water out of my bag and threw it over him, and a minute later he woke up. After I left him, I was in shock that this person came alive, but I was happy*. The guy was just looking at me in a daze, but he was amazed too, and he couldn’t stop thanking and hugging me. I was a bit in shock the rest of the night.
Reflecting on her experiences, Adele suggested that people who are consuming opioids should receive overdose response training and carry naloxone. ‘I think that it would be good if there were signs up in [needle] exchange places, just to say that there is training available.’ She thought if naloxone were spoken about more, ‘it may help people to stay alive’.
Adele (F, early 40s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids) details her personal experiences with overdose.
Many years ago, I took heroin for the first time. I was sitting on the bed with my partner at the time, Paul, and someone helped me inject heroin. At the time I was already high on another substance, and after taking the heroin, I remember saying to Paul, ‘I feel so sick I need to go home’. I lay back on his bed, then suddenly, I’ve gone into this overdose.
Apparently, I went blue within seconds. Paul’s parents came in and said to him, ‘You bloody idiot, call the ambulance’, but all I remember is waking up, being injected with Narcan, like a gasp of breath. I was shaking all over, in shock, and disoriented for the rest of the night. I was scared to go to sleep.
That was the first time I overdosed, out of five times, and I’ve also been there when other people have overdosed several times. It’s scary to watch someone overdose; basically they’ve died. I’ve had the experience of having to give mouth-to-mouth to a person and they’ve come alive due to that, and another time I’ve had to call an ambulance for someone overdosing, and then overdosed myself after calling.
Once, I threw water over a guy who I came across in the stairwell of a high-rise public housing block where a lot of overdoses occur. I shook him and felt for a pulse. When I couldn’t feel a pulse, I got water out of my bag and threw it over him, and a minute later he woke up. After I left him, I was in shock that this person came alive, but I was happy. The guy was just looking at me in a daze, but he was amazed too, and he couldn’t stop thanking and hugging me. I was a bit in shock the rest of the night.
For example, Adele (F, early 40s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids) describes the time she came across a man she suspected was having an overdose.
So I was at a high-rise building, which is a government building [public housing] where lots of overdoses occur. This particular time there was a guy and he was lying on the floor in the stairwell, and I thought that he was asleep. I thought he was stoned, and I spoke to him and asked him, ‘Are you okay? Are you okay?’ And there was no response, and I’m not the sort of person that just walks off and leaves a person there, whether they’re stoned, or whether I think that they’re dead or half alive or whatever it is. It’s scary, it’s horrible, and it’s not nice to be around. Yeah, but I shook the person and I actually felt their pulse, and there wasn’t a pulse. I had water in my bag and I threw it over him, and I don’t know how, but one minute later that person came to.