Police officer saves live of man suffering overdose in Sheffield thanks to newly introduced Naloxone spray

Sheffield response officer PC Josh Brett has shared his experience after administering the life-saving nasal spray Naloxone to a man suffering from a drug overdose earlier this month.

Sign up for newsletters from The Star

The spray - which is a medicine that rapidly reverses the effects of an opioid overdose - was rolled out by South Yorkshire Police in December 2024 and is being carried by trained frontline officers and staff across the force.

Data from the Office of National Statistics shows that in 2023, 60 people died from drug poisoning in Sheffield alone, an increase from 47 the year prior.

Across the county, 170 people died in 2023, which is slightly lower than the 171 who did in 2022.

PC Brett is one officer who carries the newly deployed spray, which police hope will limit the amount of deaths caused by opioids - a type of drug that includes the likes of heroin, fentanyl and other harmful substances.

This month, PC Brett was deployed to Sheffield city centre where he was able to successfully administer Naloxone to a man who was found unresponsive in the street.

Explaining the situation he faced, PC Brett said: "The man wasn't responding and had a weak but regular pulse. He was exhibiting the side effects of some opiate overdose and I knew from my training that giving him Naloxone would cause no further harm.

"After following the guidance from my training, I administered Naloxone by squirting it once up the man's nose.

"After a couple of minutes, he started to come round. He started to twitch and show signs of responsiveness and consciousness, and after four or five minutes he was able to tell us his name and date of birth."

Ambulance crews arrived soon after to give further medical aid to the man.

Get The Star for less than a fiver with our new value subscription package

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Oughton, force lead for drugs, said: "As police officers, our primary duty is to preserve and save lives and in the face of a potentially lethal drug overdose, Naloxone helps us achieve that.

"It is an incredibly easy medicine to administer and its effectiveness really cannot be understated as combats the impact of opioid overdoses in a matter of minutes.

"There is a danger of a person slipping into a potentially fatal cardiac arrest if Naloxone is not administered and it is worth stressing that it won't have any adverse effect on an individual.

"It works only to combat opioids in a person's system and therefore having it available to use really could be the difference between preserving life and having to tell someone that a friend or family member has sadly passed away from a drugs overdose."

The rollout of Naloxone by South Yorkshire Police has been made possible following partnership work involving all four of the county's local authorities.

All police officers and operational staff must complete mandatory training before they are allowed to carry it and the decision to carry it is optional.

Have you got a story you want to share with our readers? You can now send it to us online via YourWorld at https://www.yourworld.net/submit/ It's free to use and, once checked, your story will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers.