Zippy revives his friend Stacey when he realises she isn’t breathing
Preferred Name: Zippy
Gender: Male
Age: Late 50s
Who is Zippy?
Zippy lives in a bedsit in Melbourne. He describes his ethnic background as ‘Australian’, but he and both his parents were born in the UK. Zippy does not work and his primary source of income is a Commonwealth Disability Support Pension*. He has revived ‘about eight people’ from overdose, with and without naloxone. Although these events caused Zippy a lot of ‘anxiety’, he keeps naloxone in his fridge at home, ready to use in case a visitor overdoses. Zippy is very supportive of take-home naloxone, asking in his interview, ‘imagine how many more people would still be alive’ if it was available ‘10 or 20 years ago’?
Brief Outline:
Zippy describes an occasion when he used take-home naloxone to revive a young woman, Stacey, who experienced a heroin overdose at his house. Stacey and her partner Richard visited Zippy and they consumed heroin together. Zippy described feeling that he should ‘keep an eye on both of them’ in case of an overdose. Noticing that Stacey didn’t ‘look like she [was] doing too well’, Zippy checked on her and realised that she was not breathing. Responding immediately, he ‘raced to the fridge and just got the Narcan [naloxone] out and injected in into her arm’. On this occasion, Stacey ‘came to’ in ‘about 30 seconds’. After the event, Zippy received a text message from Stacey saying she was ‘ever so grateful’ that he helped her out.
After they’d taken the heroin, I made sure to keep an eye on both of them in case of overdose, especially because I didn’t know what they’d taken beforehand and how that might increase the chance of overdose.
Just after they took the heroin, Stacey was lying back on my bed and she didn’t look like she was doing too well. When I saw she looked grey, I realised she wasn’t breathing and was overdosing. I have naloxone sitting in the fridge, ready to go, in case anyone drops [overdoses] at my house, so I was prepared for situations like this. I like to have naloxone prepared and ready so I don’t have to fumble during an emergency.
This time I raced to the fridge and just got the Narcan [naloxone] out and injected in into her arm through her jumper. I gave Stacey one whole ampoule of naloxone. Stacey came to within about 30 seconds or so and she could tell what had happened because of the way we were all just looking at her. Then I told Richard to take her to the doctor’s in case she needed more naloxone or something like that.
Stacey was really grateful for what I did to try to save her life. She couldn’t thank me enough. I got this text from her on my phone and it bloody took me five minutes to read it, and she was saying ‘I’m really grateful that you looked after me and thank you for helping me out’ and ‘you are really kind’.
Although overdose events and giving people naloxone cause Zippy a great deal of ‘anxiety’, he continues to be very supportive of broad access to naloxone, asking in the interview, ‘imagine how many more people would still be alive’ had it been available ‘10 or 20 years ago’?
My most recent experience with take-home naloxone was when my friend Richard and his partner Stacey came to my place and they both took heroin together. Before they had their shot, I said, ‘Be careful because I know you people have got a tendency to get too smashed’.
After they’d taken the heroin, I made sure to keep an eye on both of them in case of overdose, especially because I didn’t know what they’d taken beforehand and how that might increase the chance of overdose.
Just after they took the heroin, Stacey was lying back on my bed and she didn’t look like she was doing too well. When I saw she looked grey, I realised she wasn’t breathing and was overdosing. I have naloxone sitting in the fridge, ready to go, in case anyone drops [overdoses] at my house, so I was prepared for situations like this. I like to have naloxone prepared and ready so I don’t have to fumble during an emergency.
This time I raced to the fridge and just got the Narcan [naloxone] out and injected in into her arm through her jumper. I gave Stacey one whole ampoule of naloxone. Stacey came to within about 30 seconds or so and she could tell what had happened because of the way we were all just looking at her. Then I told Richard to take her to the doctor’s in case she needed more naloxone or something like that.
Stacey was really grateful for what I did to try to save her life. She couldn’t thank me enough. I got this text from her on my phone and it bloody took me five minutes to read it, and she was saying ‘I’m really grateful that you looked after me and thank you for helping me out’ and ‘you are really kind’.
The importance of friends is emphasised by Zippy (M, late 50s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids), who almost overdosed while using heroin in a hotel room. Fortunately, he was with friends who looked after him.
Once when I was in my 20s, I had too much to drink and I was with a friend who had some, you know, it wasn’t bad dope, and I had a taste […] We were in this hotel room and he was mucking around with his girlfriend, and I was just reading a magazine or something on the other side of the room. He noticed that I started to nod off and stopped breathing and he was saying to me, ‘[Zippy], [Zippy], wake up, you’re [starting to go] blue,’ and I go, ‘No, I’ll be all right mate,’ the usual response. […] But if he wasn’t there to [say], ‘Hey, hey, come on,’ and [if he hadn’t] walked me around, took me outside, got me some air and kept me walking around, I would have died for sure. I would have just gone to sleep and stopped breathing, and there would be another person on the statistics, because that’s how easy it is to OD.
Recounting another moment of appreciation, Zippy (M, late 50s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids) tells the story of reviving a young woman who had overdosed at his house. On this occasion the young woman left the house quite soon after revival. However, Zippy describes later receiving a text message saying how grateful she was.
Well, it was a bloke and his girlfriend, and they both came over to my place and, you know, I’d got them something, and I said to them, ‘Be careful, because I know you people have got a tendency to get too smashed.’ You know, they […] tend to have too much […] Anyway, this particular girl, she started just laying back on my bed and I said to my mate ‘Your girl don’t look like she’s doing too well there, mate.’ […] ‘She’s ODing, she’s not breathing,’ so I’ve raced to the fridge and just got the Narcan out and injected it into her arm through her jumper, and probably within about 30 seconds or something, she sort of opened her eyes and came to and, you know, she pretty much knew that I had injected her, because of the way we were all just looking at her […] Well, she couldn’t thank me enough. I got this text on my phone and it took me bloody five minutes to read it. She was going, ‘I’m really grateful that you looked after me and thank you for helping me out’ [and] ‘you are really kind and I’m ever so grateful that you helped me out’.
Recounting an overdose that occurred in his own home, Zippy (M, late 50s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids) describes giving his friend take-home naloxone after he consumed particularly strong heroin. Zippy keeps syringes containing naloxone in his fridge, ready to be used in an emergency.
I scored for this bloke and I said, ‘Try this mate, but be careful, it’s really strong.’ And he had too much, mate, he had the whole lot, and I’d said to him, ‘Don’t have the whole lot.’ He’s used to having a $100 hit at once, and $100 of this other stuff that I got was a lot stronger. It was probably like having $150 worth, but he set it all up at once. And he’s another big guy [like another mate I’d revived in the past], you know, and all of a sudden, he’s just looked at me and it was as though he was looking straight through me, and he just sort of went, ‘Ooohhh’ and he just started shaking, and his legs had buckled from under him and he had to grab hold of the bench […] It was as though I wasn’t even there, and I could see that he was just hanging onto the bench and his legs buckled and I thought, ‘He’s going to drop, he’s going to drop, he’s just going to smack his head on the floor.’
While for Zippy (M, late 50s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids), ‘saving someone’s life is the main thing’, reviving people from overdose can also cause him a lot of stress. He describes having to use his nebuliser to help calm his breathing before being able to administer the naloxone.
The anxiety … oh mate, I had to get my [asthma] nebuliser out. I’ve got this little … it’s like a bong, but it’s battery operated and it’s like your puffer […] I had to get that out, because of the anxiety. […] You know, I was on my own and, you know, I didn’t have anyone to help me. And I [knew that I] probably would have [to] give him one injection and if that didn’t do anything, I would have had to get another one together as quick as possible, and I was having trouble breathing, so that added to the anxiety too.
For Zippy (M, late 50s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids), overdoses are hard to predict, so he likes to be prepared just in case.
Yeah, like, I do want to be ready, prepared, if one of my friends […] overdoses, you know. Because you just never know when someone’s susceptible to dropping. They [just] might not have used for a few days and their tolerance has dropped way down.
Zippy (M, late 50s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids) asks us to imagine how many people would still be alive had take-home naloxone been available many years ago.
Well, there would probably be a few people alive today if they had done this 10, 20 years ago. Imagine how many more people would still be alive, because a lot of people die by the time the ambulance gets there. Since this has happened, since I actually participated in this Narcan [training], I’ve administered it to two people and it’s brought them around. One of the two, I had to give another shot too, but I’ve got two shots set up in my fridge at home ready to go if someone hits the deck, because I’m a user, I use heroin and I’ve got people who come and use heroin with me […] I wouldn’t think twice about [doing] it. Saving someone’s life is the main thing.
Discussing take-home naloxone generally, Zippy (M, late 50s, Vic, non-prescribed opioids) identifies stigma as a barrier to its use in the broader community, including among those who don’t consume drugs.
Something that just flashed into my head then: it might be good for people who don’t even use drugs to maybe carry [a naloxone kit] in their bloody bag or handbag or something. Even an old lady […] might be in the city one day and someone’s injected themselves and ODed and before an ambulance can get there, [she] could still go, ‘I know how to do this’ click, bang, boom, see you later, you know. […] And she can go home and tell her grandkids that she [helped a drug user] in the city and [she could say] ‘I saved a […] life.’ […] Giving it to everyone would probably be a good idea, mate, you know, but how do you do that? Do you have big signs everywhere when people walk into, chemist’s and that, you know, ‘Would you be a participant in carrying naloxone in case you ever come across a person who’s overdosed?’ I’m sure you’d get a few people saying ‘yeah’, but most people would probably go ‘Ugh druggies, I don’t want to’.