School leaders in one Northern Panhandle county want their schools to stock a drug to resuscitate people suffering from drug overdoses - an apparently rare situation in schools, but one the county wants to prepare for.
Carol Cipoletti, lead school nurse for Brooke County schools, said the county school board voted last week to request a waiver of state school board policy to allow the county to keep naloxone, often known by the trade name Narcan, in its two middle schools and one high school. She said the waiver would allow school nurses to administer the drug, which can quickly return breathing to people suffering from overdoses on opiates, like prescription pills and heroin.
"We would be allowed to administer it right away, rather than wait up to 10 minutes for EMS to get here," Cipoletti said.
The Maryland-based National Association of School Nurses advocates making naloxone available in schools. Earlier this year, the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill to let police, firefighters and friends and family members to give naloxone to people overdosing on heroin or prescription pain pills. Previously, only paramedics, doctors and other medical professionals could legally administer the medication.
According to preliminary statistics provided by the state Department of Health and Human Resources, West Virginia saw 628 deaths from overdoses last year; 87 percent involved opiates, though DHHR noted that most overdose deaths involve multiple substances.
Brooke County saw 16 overdose deaths in 2013 and 13 in the preliminary tally for last year, and about half of each involved heroin. That would rank Brooke 14th out of 55 counties last year in a state that, according to a June report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America's Health, has the nation's highest drug overdose death rate - more than double the national average.
West Virginia's issues have attracted the attention of President Obama, who is visiting Charleston's East End today for a forum with educators, medical professionals and others dealing with a wave of drug abuse.
Cipoletti said that in more than 20 years as a nurse at Brooke County High, she recalls about five times when naloxone could've been used: two involving children whose breathing had already stopped, and the others involving students "slowly going under." The school system's request to the state board says it has experienced the issue several times at the high school.
Did any of those students die? "Not on my watch, honey," Cipoletti said - but she said they would have if school employees hadn't started resuscitating the victims before EMS arrived.
Brenda Isaac - a school nurse in Kanawha County for three decades, including the past 20 years as the county's lead school nurse - said she's never heard of a student or employee overdosing on drugs during school time to the point of unconsciousness, though she said students have been treated on rare occasions for taking too many pills.
"We're seeing the drug issues get worse and worse, so that doesn't mean it wouldn't happen," Isaac said.
She said Kanawha, the state's largest school system, has limited funding and she didn't know if stocking naloxone would be worth the possible cost.
Isaac noted it's also rare for students and employees to have their hearts stop during the school day, but said there's a "much more realistic need" for the county to place a defibrillator - a device that can administer electronic shocks to restart a heart - in each school in the county. She said Kanawha only has defibrillators in its eight high schools, three vocational schools and a few elementary and middle schools attended by students with heart conditions.
Becky King said she's never heard of an in-school overdose by a student or employee during her dozen years as the state Department of Education's school nurse consultant. But she said she supports Brooke County's proposal, and called it innovative.
"It's about being proactive and embracing our current statistics in West Virginia," King said.
Brooke County's EMS system would fund the naloxone to be stored in schools, and King said it could cost as little as $20 per dose for the type that victims inhale through their noses. Currently, she said schools are only allowed to purchase and stock epinephrine - the drug found in EpiPens and used to combat allergic reactions - though parents can purchase drugs students may need throughout the day, such as insulin, and provide it to schools to give to their children.
If the state school board approves Brooke's requested waiver - education department spokeswoman Kristin Anderson said it'll be on next month's meeting agenda - other school systems would still have to request waivers to stock naloxone.
Cipoletti said too many kids are dying from drug overdoses.
"If we can save a life and point them in the right direction, we should do it," she said.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.