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Haworth police officers rescue heroin user from suicide attempt

SHOUT OUTS: Two Haworth police officers using Narcan rescued a 22-year-old heroin user from a suicide attempt before dawn this morning.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot File Photo

Officers Thomas Rienecke and James Morgan were met at the door just after 4:45 a.m. by the Madison Avenue homeowner, who told them that his son had overdosed.

They found the unconscious victim on his back on a living room couch “foaming and bleeding from the mouth and nose,” Lt. Thomas Ryan told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

After the officers hooked him up to an oxygen tank, Rienecke administered a single dose of Narcan.

“His breathing improved and he had a high pulse,” Ryan said, “but he wasn’t responsive yet.”

The officers positioned his head to open the airway as Morgan administered the second dose.

Within a few minutes, “his eyes opened slightly and he began to breath heavier,” the lieutenant said.

Haworth EMS and a unit from Hackensack UMC at Pascack Valley responded, attended to the man and took him to Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where he was conscious and answering questions.

Detectives, meanwhile, were reviewing a trio of suicide notes, including one in which he said he bought heroin in Paterson with the intention of killing himself, Ryan said.

After taking what he’d hoped would be the fatal dose, he destroyed the evidence, the lieutenant said.

“The quick response of the officers and the quick administering of the Narcan saved this young man’s life,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “That’s why we carry it.”

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