Peggy Wehr was sitting at the reference desk of the Fountain Square Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library, where she’s the branch manager, when a woman approached her and asked if she could check on her friend, who had gone to the bathroom but didn’t come out. Wehr banged on the door and didn’t get a response, so she unlocked the door and found the woman’s friend slumped in front of the door.
It was April 2018. The woman on the bathroom floor overdosed after injecting what was likely heroin. Emergency responders later found a syringe in the bathroom.
Wehr had two people hold the woman by her legs and head. The library clerk called 911, and Wehr rushed to grab Narcan, a nasal spray that administers naloxone, which reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. She administered the naloxone and went to meet the emergency responders. By the time they got back, the woman had walked out of the bathroom.
“I just remember the adrenaline,” Wehr said. “It’s just a rush. You’re hurrying to get stuff. But when it was done I remember being really shaky.”
The Fountain Square Branch had just gotten its Narcan two days before the incident, Wehr said.
About a year ago, Indianapolis Public Library branch managers, along with other persons in charge, started getting training on how to use Narcan. John Helling, director of public services at the library, said that program started out of necessity.
“To be frank, we were seeing it happen every day in our branches,” Helling said of people using narcotics in and around buildings, “and we decided we have two options. We can ignore it, or we can address it. It’s not necessarily our job, but we’re human beings.”
As of mid-March, Helling said Wehr was the only library staff member to use Narcan.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
