On Christmas Day, work went on for overdose prevention workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
CBC
On Christmas Day, Trey Helten and colleagues at Vancouver's Overdose Prevention Society were still at work, helping the latest victim of what Helten says is a seasonal spike in the drug toxicity crisis.
Helten shared a photo and a story on social media on Monday describing how he and colleagues administered Naloxone to a man who had overdosed and stopped breathing on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
"At a time of the year when it's supposed to be family togetherness, you lose someone that you care about. It can be extremely devastating,'' said Helten in an interview.
"So, the reason I posted it was just to bring awareness to it. It wasn't to be exploitive or anything. At least we prevented one family from getting a call that their loved one is deceased."
Helten's photo, shared on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, shows a man lying on the street and being tended to.
A plastic bag decorated with Santa Claus logos, that Helten said contained the man's belongings, is torn open on the ground.
Helten said the overdose prevention society runs several tents across Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, including one on East Hastings Street.
He said that around noon on Christmas Day, staff noticed a man on the corner "slumped over and purple,'' indicating a lack of oxygen.
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Helten said they gave him shots of Naloxone. "Thankfully, he still had a pulse and we started giving him oxygen and he started vomiting,'' Helten said.
He said Vancouver Fire Rescue Services and B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics arrived and took over caring for the man.
"The last thing he remembered was taking a hit of crack cocaine or what he thought was crack cocaine. But it turns out it was fentanyl, he turned blue and overdosed,'' said Helten.
Brian Twaites, a paramedic public information officer with B.C. Emergency Health Services, said two ambulance crews responded on Hastings Street after receiving a call at noon on Christmas Day.
Twaites said paramedics cared for one patient who was taken to hospital.
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