Our son overdosed in his doctor’s office and they had no idea what to do
Health care providers receive minimal training to address addiction and are unequipped to identify, treat and manage this common life-threatening disease.
He overdosed in a doctor’s office. It’s hard to believe, right? We were sitting in the waiting room when he started nodding off. I could tell he wasn’t right. It was the pediatrician’s office so they hustled him off into another room because they had all these young kids and families around and they wanted to isolate him. And they didn’t know how to handle it. They were stumped by the whole thing; they’d never had anyone overdose in their office before. They ended up calling an ambulance and had him transported to the emergency department. The doctor was thought of as William’s primary provider but there was no contact from the doctor after the overdose.
Bill’s story is taken from an interview transcript and has been edited for clarity.
