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There are approximately 295 drug overdose deaths each day, based on 107,941 overdose deaths in 2022. The number of overdose deaths from prescription and illicit opioids has significantly increased from 47,600 in 2017 to 80,186 in 2022.
As a result, today, people are more likely to die from accidental opioid overdoses (1 in 96 odds) than a car crash (1 in 103 odds).1
Overdose deaths are increasingly occurring in teens. Twenty-two high school students a week die due to drug overdose, an entire classroom, mostly due to fentanyl. From July 2019 to December 2021, there was a 109% increase in overdose deaths in 10- to 19- year-olds: 2/3 of them had 1 or more bystanders, but they lacked overdose rescue skills or resources to help.2
We have reached a critical point of national suffering. It is not just limited to immediate loss of life at the scene. The suffering encompasses victims whose cardiac function remains, yet they are brain dead from lack of an oxygen supply. Current bystander CPR is hands-only chest compressions for an unconscious victim, rescue-breathing has fallen off the algorithm entirely. It takes critical minutes until the police or the EMS squad to arrive, which is a potential missed opportunity for intact survival if a bystander is unprepared. Drug overdose related brain death remains the single greatest increased etiology leading to organ donation over the past twenty years.
"I was an anesthesiologist mother who needed to rescue her opioid overdosing son, which I had successfully done on multiple occasions. I had the education to have naloxone immediately available and CPR skills to achieve the best possible outcome — skills which anyone can learn. Just imagine the emotions felt performing rescue maneuvers on your child, or conversely being unskilled and not knowing what to do until help arrives. Ultimately, on the crest of this wave of opioid destruction, both of my sons succumbed to this addiction. I am not alone in this loss. Tens of thousands of parents have suffered such devastating pain."
- Bonnie Milas, MD
There is a dire need for our communities to be prepared to respond to opioid overdoses in the home and in public spaces. We have made progress in making naloxone more available. But we must do more in order that everyone is educated and ready in how to completely rescue an opioid overdose victim.
We invite you to join the REVIVEme initiative to reduce opioid and drug related mortality to ensure public education for detection, and intervention, and tools for rescue are widely available. When implemented in a coordinated fashion, these interventions will help to greatly reduce morbidity and mortality in the U.S. today. Resource materials for the public and physician use are provided here for free. Make a difference in the campaign to reduce opioid and drug related mortality today!
In March 2023, the FDA approved Naloxone’s availability over the counter (OTC)– the first 4 mg naloxone product approved for use without a prescription. Naloxone is an opioid reversal medication, which rapidly reverses opioid overdose.
First and foremost, everyone should keep this lifesaving medication, naloxone, in your home and have it with you in your daily life, perhaps in a purse, briefcase or backpack. Naloxone is available in pharmacies, various commercial stores, Amazon.com, county and city departments of health, fire and police departments and many libraries offer it for free.
Resource materials for the public and physician use are provided here for free. Make a difference in the campaign to reduce opioid and drug related mortality today!
Dr. Bonnie Milas Appears on the Zac Clark Podcast Educating Listeners about Naloxone
ASA Committee on Trauma and Emergency Preparedness member and cardiac anesthesiologist and intensivist, Bonnie Milas, MD, appeared on the Zac Clark Show podcast to discuss her story and efforts to bring awareness to naloxone, a medication that can save a life in an opioid emergency.
She shared her personal connection to the opioid epidemic and discussed her advocacy on the issue, educating listeners of the podcast on how to recognize, react and revive a person experiencing an opioid emergency. Zac Clark’s podcast explores substance use, depression, anxiety, suicide — and the conversations that need to happen but are not happening. It is a platform to have the hard conversations. With experts and frontline heroes, the podcast aims to confront these issues head-on and most importantly, offer solutions and hope.
The opioid crisis is the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, its devastation reverberating through countless lives and communities. In Countermeasures, a podcast by Emergent, advocates and experts share the work they’re doing to reduce opioid overdose deaths, destigmatize dependency, and change the course of the opioid crisis. In this episode, hear from Dr. Bonnie Milas, anesthesiologist, intensivist, Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Dr. Milas shares signs of opioid overdose, and what the public can do to be prepared to act in case of an accidental overdose.
This page is curated by the Committee on Trauma and Emergency Preparedness and was last updated on 12/9/24.
Thank you to the members of the Committee on Trauma and Emergency Preparedness and the REVIVEme Workgroup for their contributions to this effort.
1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2019 Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes — United States Surveillance Special Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Published November 1, 2019. Accessed [02/15/2020] from cdc.gov [PDF].
2Friedman, J., & Hadland, S. E. (2024). The Overdose Crisis among U.S. Adolescents. New England Journal of Medicine, 390(2), 97–100. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2312084