Sheriff Recognizes Deputies For Lifesaving in Sheriff’s Office Project DAN (Deaths Avoided by Naloxone)

by | Jul 12, 2018 | Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE…

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Sheriff Recognizes Deputies For Lifesaving in Sheriff’s Office Project DAN (Deaths Avoided by Naloxone)

Sheriff Mitch Ralston Reports:

Since 2016, the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office has participated in “Project DAN (Deaths Avoided by Naloxone)”. The program is administered by the Medical Association of Georgia in response to the nationwide opioid epidemic. Through this program, in which the (Gordon County) Sheriff’s Office was a pilot agency, deputies are trained in the application and use of the counter-drug Naloxone (also known as Narcan). The Project supplies law enforcement agencies with enough Narcan for each officer to keep dosages in their automobiles, and trains them to recognize physical effects of opioid abuse. Naloxone/Narcan typically reverses the effects in overdoses of opioids such as heroin, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and methadone. To date, Gordon County deputies have have administered Narcan in three life-threatening overdose cases.

Today, Sheriff Mitch Ralston recognized two deputies who took action in response to a drug overdose incident near Resaca on March 20th. The Sheriff presented Corporal Robert Garcia and Deputy Jeremy Borromeo each with a ‘Sheriff’s Meritorious Service (Lifesaving)‘ medal “for official actions which prevented great bodily harm or death”, stemming from a report of a woman who’d overdosed on opioids and had been found unconscious and unresponsive. The deputies’ rapid application of Narcan was credited for saving her life.

Sheriff Ralston said, “I take great pleasure today in recognizing the actions of Corporal Garcia and Deputy Borromeo for saving a human life. Project DAN has been very successful in helping public safety officials combat the deadly effects of opioids. However, I want to emphasize that this event could’ve been avoided by not abusing drugs in the first place. Thank God the deputies were trained and equipped to save her life. I am proud of both of these fine officers for their quick thinking and dedication to the citizens of Gordon County” 

 PHOTO: left-to-right, Corporal Robert Garcia, Sheriff Mitch Ralston, and Deputy Jeremy Borromeo