The man’s face was purple. The whites of his eyes stared out, the pupils rolled back into his head. He was sweating profusely, his tongue hanging from his mouth.
When Sean LeBlanc opened the door to the rooming house hallway last summer, it was clear to the former addict what was happening.
“It was an opiate overdose,” he said. “I’d seen it before.”
LeBlanc sprang into action. He grabbed a naloxone kit — a device similar to an EpiPen — and injected the life-saving antidote into his friend’s shoulder.
It took less than 15 seconds for LeBlanc to empty the tiny vial and remove the retractable safety needle.
“Thanks to the naloxone training I could bring him back.”
He’s one of 93 people who have gone through Ottawa Public Health’s Peer Overdose Prevention Program (POPP) — one of the free harm reduction strategies available in the capital. It launched two years ago to coincide with the annual International Overdose Awareness Day, marked in Ottawa Friday at the Human Rights Monument at 11:30 a.m.