Retired Firefighter's Mission To Save Overdose Victims

This retired firefighter is spending his time — and his savings — rescuing overdose victims.

Transcript

00:00I went out and bought 800 individual nasal Narcan sprays and I have responded to emergency

00:07scenes in South Florida and brought 11 people back to life.

00:28My name is Luis Garcia.

00:31About a year and a half ago I started a one-man project to save lives in the opioid pandemic.

00:38I've never been impacted by the disease of addiction.

00:40Nobody I know or love is battling substance use disorder.

00:44I don't make any money off this.

00:45This is just a matter of being a good human being and helping other human beings.

00:50Every life is worth saving.

00:52Come in a box of two, $37.50 to save a human life.

01:10There will be a click, keep it in the one, two seconds, then pull it out.

01:14During my career, I believe I've gone to over 3,000 overdoses.

01:36The one medication that any paramedic or ER can give somebody in a life or death emergency

01:43that is the safest emergency drug is Narcan.

01:47When it became available over the counter essentially for layperson usage, I realized

01:52that we could change the tide of deaths in the opioid crisis.

02:07You drive right by here, there's nice condominiums, there's beautiful homes, people are living

02:12their life and they don't realize a block over, someone's overdosing.

02:16Two blocks away, somebody's selling their body for opioids.

02:21So many people assume that the people who are overdosing are junkies.

02:26More often than not, they're middle class people, they're people who work, they're quote

02:30unquote good people.

02:32They become addicted to prescription pain medicines and then they lose insurance so

02:39they turn to street heroin.

02:41But they're not junkies or homeless, they're good people.

03:00In Florida, the overdose deaths have gone down dramatically and because more people

03:06are carrying Narcan, fewer people are dying.

03:09I've also been very impressed by the kindness of strangers on GoFundMe.

03:14Almost 700 people have donated anything from $5 to $2,000 to save lives and it's inspired

03:21me to believe that there are still good people besides myself out there.

03:25I will actually be able to go all over the USA and do what I'm doing now.

03:29I am hopeful that I will save many more lives but I also know that the reality is that attitudes

03:35have a long way to go.