TAMPA, Fla. — Southwest Airlines' medical kits will now include Narcan.
Narcan, the brand name for naloxone, is a life-saving medication that can reverse an opioid overdose.
As Congress members push the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require all airlines to carry the nasal spray on board, Southwest now joins other major airlines, like Delta, United, and Alaska, who already do.
Southwest's move to include Narcan in its medical kits began four months after one of its flights from Baltimore to West Palm made an emergency landing in Orlando.
The ABC Action News I-Team was the first to interview people on board, who said a man suffered what could have been a fatal overdose were it not for the training and quick thinking of fellow passengers. At 30,000 feet on that Southwest flight in July, there was no Narcan on board.
I-TEAM | Man suffers overdose on Southwest Airlines flight. Should the FAA require Narcan on airplanes?
Southwest Airlines passenger Drew Ashley was an hour into a flight and fast asleep when "out of nowhere," he heard his father calling his name.
"Then I see him getting this young man into the aisle. He looked unresponsive, so I hopped over the two guys I was sitting next to, you know, and just went right to it," he said.
For the next 45 minutes, Ashley, his father, and two other passengers who were nurses kept the man alive until the plane could make an emergency landing.
Josh Lazarus was on that same flight on Friday, July 28.
“I hear a ‘bang,’ and there is a man on top of another man, and he’s performing life-saving measures at my feet," Lazarus said. “I’m looking at the man, he’s — he’s blue.’"
Ashley and Lazarus said the man was flying with a friend who told them he struggled with an opioid addiction and "had problems with relapsing."
"Immediately, I knew he was overdosed. I’ve been in recovery for 18 years now," Lazarus told the I-Team. "And unfortunately, I’ve seen this happen, and people not make it."
“The only thing I knew to do, I jumped up, and I ran from where I was at to the front of the cabin, and I asked, I said, 'Does anybody here have Narcan?'” Lazarus said. “I think it’s safe to say 70% of the people didn’t even know what I was talking about.”
What was on the flight, Ashley said, was a bag valve mask (BVM). A pocket mask attached to an oxygen bag was used to get oxygen into the 27-year-old man's lungs.
“Every six seconds, I would count out, you know, one 1,000, two 1,000, three 1,000, etc. on the sixth, we could give a breath," Ashley said.
The Ashleys knew what to do because this is what they do. Their company is called The Life Saviors.
“We’re a CPR, AED, first aid certification company," Ashley said.
They have contracts to teach life-saving measures to be used in an emergency.
“I don’t know what you believe in, okay, but to me, this is divine intervention. It will change the way I look at things for the rest of my life," Lazarus said. "It's inspiring me to campaign for Narcan. The airports need Narcan. The planes need Narcan. People need to know what it is. People need to have it."
“When they ripped the man out of the plane, they administered Narcan twice. Right there on the spot," Lazarus said of the first responders.
Ashley has stayed in contact with the passenger who overdosed. And he's okay.
“About 48 hours later, when he had called us, you know, to give thanks, and we were hearing his voice, and at that point, all of the emotion set in, like it brought tears to my and my father’s eyes," Ashley said. “Thankfully, we were there to resuscitate him, keep him alive, so he can get the help that he needs.”
Though it is unclear how many passengers have overdosed on a flight, the CDC reports in 2022, nearly 110,000 people died in the U.S. from a drug overdose.
That's 300 people every day — enough people to fill every seat on two Southwest flights every day for a year.
The I-Team reached out to Lazarus and Ashley after Southwest confirmed it would start carrying Narcan — their goal behind sharing their story in the first place.
“Realistically, something happened when that happened to push this and to propel this to where it is," Lazarus said.
“To find out that we’re here right now — unbelievable. I’m just, I’m in a state of shock," Lazarus said.
Shocked, like Ashley, that change came as fast as it did.
“I’m just ecstatic, honestly," Ashley told the I-Team.
In a statement, Southwest told the I-Team, "With Customer Safety and comfort at front of mind, Southwest is enhancing its onboard emergency medical kits above and beyond current FAA requirements. The new kits, which are being installed throughout our fleet over the course of 2024, feature an auto-injector dosage of epinephrine, as well as doses of naloxone (Narcan) nasal spray and ondansetron (Zofran) tablets."
Southwest will also have better equipment for rendering first aid.
“If you can reach the proper people, you can be heard," Lazarus said. “The idea of this situation, nobody every having to deal with this situation again, brings me great peace because it was — it’s something I’ll never forget."
Despite legislative efforts to make the FAA require Narcan on all flights, a move the agency could make on its own, so far, Narcan is still only recommended to be included in emergency medical kits.
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Florida has a website where you can find free naloxone providers and search by county. Narcan is also now available over the counter.
This story came from a tip. If you have something you’d like the I-Team to investigate, email kylie.mcgivern@wfts.com.
