We'd like to congratulate and thank new City of Fort Walton Beach employee Alexis Atkinson, who works at Beal Memorial Cemetery, for helping to save the life of a woman experiencing an overdose.
Alexis has only been on the job for a week, but she’s already made a big impact. On Monday of this week she was trimming the grass at Beal Memorial Cemetery when a car pulled into the cemetery. Atkinson noticed the driver was panicked, screaming and crying on the phone, so she drove her cart over to check on her.
“She (the driver) said she needed me to call 911 because her sister (a passenger in the car) was overdosing,” said Atkinson. “I told her I had Narcan, and I ran to my truck to get it.”
Atkinson returned to the car to administer the anti-overdose medication to the unconscious woman in the passenger seat. She gave the woman two doses of Narcan, and began sternal rubs to help stabilize her breathing.
“It still wasn’t enough,” said Atkison. “The Fire Department administered two more Narcan doses and then she finally came back.”
The woman was stabilized and transported for treatment, and Atkinson said she has already heard from the patient’s sister that she had survived the overdose.
“I have many friends who have died to addiction,” said Atkinson, including one close friend who passed away this year because no one had Narcan to administer him.
“Ever since then, I’ve told myself that I’m always going to have Narcan on me,” said Atkinson, who got the medication from Bridgeway Center, Inc. Monday’s incident was the first opportunity she’s had to administer the medication.
“It was super easy and self-explanatory,” said Atkinson, who had no prior first aid experience. “I just kept telling myself that this is someone else’s baby and she’s going to make it out; I had no fear that she was going to die.”
“We really appreciate our employees,” said City Manager Jeff Peters. “But to have somebody like that, especially in the short time she’s been here, do something like that is truly outstanding.”