As much as we like to think of EMS as a service that is only used in the absolute worst of emergencies, in reality, that is not how it is used. For the most part, we are not saving people’s lives left and right. We do deal with a significant amount of traumas and other major injuries, heart attacks, and although we do have treatments for those conditions, stopping bleeding, splinting, blood thinners they are not as instant of a fix as we would like it to be. Even though these things really do help the patient in the long term, it is very very rare that we actually get to see the fruits of our labor in treating the patients. However, there are some instances that we get to experience every once in a good while where we really feel like we were able to make a difference. Now to the story. I had just gotten off my standby shift for the times square vaccine POD shift at 47th St. and 7th Ave. when asked one of the supervisors at Central Park if I could get out on the supervisor truck for the rest of the day. Now, something to note about the POD standbys is that they are extremely boring, but I am willing to do them because they generate revenue for the unit. So after six hours of doing nothing, Garry pulls up to the POD and says, “We have an [respiratory] arrest at 106th and 5th let’s go.” My heart immediately begins racing because this is the highest priority medical emergency there is. After a 6-minute trip lights and sirens from 47th and 7th to 106th and 5th, I get out and come to find our ambulance crew already working on a patient in full respiratory arrest. This means that we are breathing for the patient because they are not doing it on their own. Shortly after our arrival we roll the patient out of the building and get them in the back of the ambulance to transport to our nearest hospital just a few blocks away. Right before we leave, a paramedic who was on scene found the patient’s eyes were pinpoint, a sign of an opioid overdose especially with a patient who is not breathing. Given that naloxone (Narcan) has very few side effects and an extremely powerful effect to reverse an overdose we give it liberally on a patient we even have a slight suspicion that they may be overdosing. After giving naloxone IM, the patient begins to breathe again on his own and regains consciousness. This is a legitimate save, had we not been there and done what we did including rescue breathing and giving naloxone, our patient likely would have died in just a few minutes, and even if he was revived, would have been brain dead.