Photo: Tavares Police Department / Courtesy
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Florida police officer received three doses of Narcan after she was exposed to fentanyl and reportedly overdosed during a traffic stop on Tuesday.
A video shows the moment Tavares officer, Courtney Bannick, receives the drug to reverse opioid overdose while lying motionless on the side of a street shortly after midnight.
Bannick enfound narcotics, which police believe contained the deadly drug, in a rolled dollar bill inside the vehicle that she and the other officers stopped , according to local reports.
Shortly thereafter, he began to have difficulty breathing.
Another officer on the scene heard her choking and gasping over her radio and approached. She was found losing consciousness and requiring immediate medical attention, the Tavares Police Department said in a statement obtained by Click Orlando.
That officer and two others placed Bannick on the ground and quickly administered Narcan.
She was brought back and was speaking before losing consciousness again and appeared to have stopped breathing, body camera video released by the department shows.
“I was completely lifeless. She looks dead in these videos,” Tavares Police Detective Courtney Sullivan told Fox 80 Orlando . “So she’s very grateful today.”
In total, the cops gave Bannick three doses of Narcan before she got a ambulance and taken to an area hospital. She is expected to make a full recovery.
Officers believe that Bannick, who wore gloves when she handled the narcotics, may have been exposed due to to the wind that carried the drugs into her system. Officers planned to test the substance at the station and not at the scene because it was very windy.
“I’ve done this 100 times before in the same way. It is only needed once and a minimal amount,” Bannick said. “I am grateful that I was not alone and had immediate help.”
She requested that the alarming video be published to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl.
“If the other officers were not there, there is a very high probability that today would be different and that we would wear our thin blue line, the straps that go over our insignia,” Sullivan said, referring to the protocol when an officer is killed in the line of duty.
The people who were stopped by the officers and allegedly had the drugs in their power face possible felony charges. Their names have not been released because they have not yet been charged, the department said.