Seattle! You can get free Narcan delivered to you

If you appear to be snoozing on the sidewalk, Meghan Hushagen, a nurse who works on Aurora, will wake you up.

“There are people sleeping on the ground all around Seattle; every time I pass by someone who looks like they’re in too deep a sleep, I ruin their nap, check in to make sure they’re okay,” said Hushagen.

Hushagen worries some of these people may be under the influence of opiates, which is why she gives them a nudge to see if she should deploy her ready stash of Narcan, the brand name for Naloxone, which revives a person who may be fading.

Naloxone is free to anyone who orders it in King County – mailed to your door – and Hushagen said she wishes everyone would carry it with them.

On Monday, Hushagen used her Narcan.

“I was working at my permanent supportive housing building,” she said via Instagram messenger. (She had posted about her experience on the social media platform and I wanted to know more. She is my best friend's sister-in-law.)

“A resident came in and said that there was an overdose happening at the ampm across the street from the building," Hushagen recounted. “Staff and myself ran over to check, after grabbing Narcan and found a man unresponsive on the ground. He was experiencing agonal breathing, was not responsive to sternal chest rub.”

They administered Narcan five times. Hushagen said that fentanyl is so strong at the moment that it’s taking more doses of Narcan to bring someone around. The man had a pulse the whole time, so they waited for emergency medical services to arrive.

“He was slowly coming to when we left,” Hushagen said.