DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Dunwoody High School was put on lockdown after a student experienced a medical emergency in class.
Wednesday’s emergency happened months after a 15-year-old student, Mia Dieguez, died of a fentanyl overdose in May.
This time, life-saving Narcan was nearby, and trained school personnel used the drug to revive the student within seconds. The Narcan was there, in part because of the efforts of Dunwoody High School Junior Mady Cohen.
“There is going to be a difference that’s being made from this. It makes me feel like my work isn’t being done for nothing. It’s actually going to come out to something amazing,” Cohen told Channel 2′s Michael Doudna.
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Cohen did not know Dieguez well. However, she remembers the impact her death had on friends and classmates.
“And so when it hurts so close to home and when there are people you care about hurting so badly, it just gives a certain type of motivation,” Cohen said. “It was that same rush of I need to do something.”
Cohen would call the manufacturer of Narcan the next day about how they could get more of the life-saving drug into classrooms and how much it would cost.
“For us to get Narcan in every classroom, we need $5,000,” Cohen said. “So I went to administration with the idea of getting Narcan in every classroom.”
Cohen says the school administration was very receptive to the idea.
Dunwoody’s PTSO donated enough money to afford an entire case of Narcan that was distributed to classrooms throughout the school.
School officials also underwent training to learn how to administer the life-saving drug.
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On Wednesday, two doses from that donated supply were used to revive the student.
The school district says the doses were administered by trained campus security personnel and were alerted to the classroom via the Centegix crisis alert system, which was put in during the last school year.
For Mady, Wednesday’s events further reinforce the need for Narcan to be in every classroom.
She is currently still raising $5,000 to make sure Narcan is never more than just a few steps away.
You can donate through VENMO to the school’s Parent Teacher Student Organization and specify that the money is for Mady’s Narcan Project.
This year, state lawmakers required all schools to make sure opioid-overdose reversal drugs like naloxone are on the premises.
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