Two Iredell County Sheriff’s Office deputies administered Narcan and used a valve mask to provide rescue breaths to a man who was found unconscious in a vehicle Tuesday afternoon.
Iredell Sheriff Darren Campbell, in a news release, said two members of the Interstate Criminal Enforcement team (ICE) were working in the Exit 59 area of Interstate 77 Tuesday when they were notified of a silver SUV that was being operated in an erratic manner. The vehicle, they told the deputies, was traveling north.
The deputies, Campbell said, searched for the vehicle, and found it in the rest area. It had struck the guardrail, trash cans and other items as it was entering the rest area, and came to rest facing south in the northbound entrance lane, Campbell said.
Deputies approached and saw the driver was slumped over the steering wheel and was unresponsive. The deputies pried the driver’s door open and realized the driver was not breathing, Campbell said.
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They checked to see if the driver had any injuries, and noticed items of drug paraphernalia, and what they believed to be heroin, inside the SUV, Campbell said.
The deputies got the driver out of the vehicle, placed him on the ground and administered Narcan, Campbell said. They used a bag valve mask, from their first-aid kit, to provide rescue breathing to the driver, he said.
Iredell County EMS and first responders from Ebenezer Fire and Rescue arrived and assisted with further medical care.
The driver began breathing on his own and eventually regained consciousness, Campbell said.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol investigated the accident.
