A Fight for Life in a Doorway
Photographer: John Simpson
Exhibit Title: A Fight for Life in a Doorway
Location: United States
As the slow seep of homelessness grows in the United States (as well as in other countries), the number of death attributed to opioid overdoses rises as well.
These six black and white photographs document the approxiamte three minutes during which the life of a homeless woman who had overdosed on fentanyl rested between life or death.
The survival of homeless men and women living in shelters and on the streets is precarious at best. With the rising number of fentanyl overdoses, it is downright lethal.
The fight to save a homeless woman's life from a fentanyl overdose began in a side door of a restaurant in downtown Olympia, Washington. For approximately three minutes, the woman teetered on the edge of life or death.
Her homeless boyfriend began by nudging her still and bluish/grey body, telling her to wake up. When this did not work, he resorted to slapping her, demanding that she answer him.
The siren of a fire truck could be heard in the distance.
Panic seized the boyfriend, and he inserted one Narcan after another into a nostril - four in total - in a desperate attempt to revive her. A bystander yelled that chest compressions might help.
At his wit's end, he began to apply uneven chest compressions. Moments later a firefighter pulled him aside, dragged the woman out of the doorway and placed an Ambu bag over her nose and mouth. A second firefighter searched for a pulse; a third asked if fentanyl had been used; and a fourth kept a small crowd at a distance.
Suddenly the woman bolted straight up, not comprehending what had been and was going on around her. A firefighter told her that she was lucky to be alive.
The fight in the doorway was over, and the homeless woman had not gone over the edge.
Luck is fickle. Of the homeless individuals in and around Olympia, Washington who do overdose on fentanyl, 84 percent lose the fight.
jmsimpson1@gmail.com
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