Health officials said a woman's overdose Saturday night at a Central Ohio Kroger is a sign of the times.
Kathy Pittman found the woman, lifeless, on the floor of the women's bathroom at the 5th and High Street location.
Pittman has worked for decades as an administrative assistant at the OSU Wexner Medical Center and is CPR certified.
"I went to the restroom, I heard this water running as I walked in. I gently pushed the door open, and there was this dead girl. I could tell she was clinically deceased, laying on the floor. She was blue. She was cyanotic. She was blue."
She said the woman showed no signs of life- no pulse or movement in her chest.
"It's kind of strange," she said. "I never thought I would do this, but I instantly wanted to save her life. That's all you're thinking- I've got to save this girl, I've got to save this girl."
She said she yelled for someone to call 911, and she and two others began performing CPR on the woman.
"All the sudden I look up and this girl runs in the bathroom out of nowhere- I don't know where she came from- and she said 'I got Narcan.' And she gave her Narcan and that kind of brought her back to full consciousness. We got the heart beating from compressions and all that. But after the Narcan, it seemed like it kind of gave her the breath back."
"Unfortunately we are seeing an epidemic of unprecedented proportions. So the fact that more of us are going to be seeing overdoses in places we are not used to may be a fact of life," said Jose Rodriguez with Columbus Public Health.
In recent months, 10TV has reported on a fatal overdose at Lennox movie theater, and two in two weeks at the same Circle K.
Rodriguez said Narcan, or Naloxone, can stop an overdose in seconds and is something most businesses, even ordinary people, should consider having on hand.
"Normally in a place of business you may have a defibrillator, you may have people trained to do CPR. Naloxone is a life-saving drug that you can use to stop somebody from having an overdose. and perhaps save their life."
Narcan is available without a prescription at most pharmacies. It works like any nasal spray, and your pharmacist can train you how to use it in about 10 minutes.
Columbus Public Health said you cannot harm someone by giving them Narcan.
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