The Emergency Medicine Club of USC hosted their “Recognition and Treatment of Emergencies at Parties” event at the USC Village entrance on Wednesday. While waiting to cross the street, students learned how to administer Narcan and identify the symptoms of opioid overdose, as well as the difference between intoxication and alcohol poisoning.
Luke Sparks, the executive director of the EM Club and a junior majoring in health promotion and disease prevention studies, said USC’s reputation as a “party school” made it essential for students to understand drug- and alcohol-related emergencies.
“It’s important for all of us at USC to be able to, when at a party… be able to recognize — when somebody [is] just drunk, or when somebody [is] having a medical emergency and we need to call 911,” Sparks said.
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The event featured signs explaining the signs of an overdose and alcohol poisoning, as well as graphics depicting how to administer Narcan. The signs urged students to always call 911 if they suspect a medical emergency is happening and to remain with the person suspected of overdosing until help arrives.
The EM Club also supplied free Narcan to students. Ethan Fayne, the assistant director of communications for the EM Club and a junior majoring in biological sciences, said the Narcan was offered so that students wouldn’t have to pay the $45 retail price in order to use the skills the EM Club had taught them.
“Alongside giving this information about how to deliver Narcan for an overdose to anyone, we’re also giving students the ability to actually take it into their own hands if necessary,” Fayne said.
Meghana Venkatesha, the EM Club’s director of outreach and a junior majoring in health and
human sciences as well as the narrative medicine progressive degree program, was one of the club members training students on how to use Narcan. She demonstrated how to insert the Narcan device inside of a dummy’s nostril and how to release the medication.
“Opioid overdoses are most commonly accidental fentanyl poisonings,” Venkatesha said. “That’s why, even if you don’t use opioids, it is very smart to know how to act in the case of an opioid overdose.”
Venkatesha said that each box of Narcan that the EM Club handed out contained two Narcan devices, and that both of which would likely have to be used to prevent someone from overdosing. She said that an overdosing person should become conscious roughly a minute following Narcan administration, but it is still important to call 911 regardless.
“Even if you use the Narcan device and the person is conscious again… it could be temporary, and they could go back into having an overdose,” Venkatesha said. “Narcan causes immediate withdrawal, which can shock your body and … cause negative impacts which need to be treated at a hospital.”
Aiden Mardani, the EM Club’s director of research and a sophomore majoring in business administration as well as economics, also trained interested students on Narcan administration. Mardani said that unresponsiveness and slow breathing were both signs of opioid overdose and that Narcan had no negative side effects when used on a person who did not have opioids in their system. Therefore, if a person was unsure if someone had overdosed, they should not hesitate to administer Narcan.
The EM Club’s event was done in collaboration with Falck, an emergency response and healthcare company. Members of the EM Club who also worked for Falck gave students a tour of the inside of the vehicle, pointing out the gurney, oxygen masks, bandages, ice packs and other supplies used in medical emergencies.
Destiny Bui, the director of communications for the EM Club and a junior majoring in biochemistry, said that the goal of the event was not only to raise awareness for emergencies that could potentially happen at parties, but also to show USC students how easy it can be to assist someone experiencing one of these medical emergencies.
“Being able to recognize [alcohol poisoning and opioid overdose] and treat them is a lot more simple than most people might think,” Bui said. “We want to be able to give people the opportunity to know how to react to these situations so that they’re able to take care of not only themselves, but those around them, and make a difference in the USC community.”
