Saving lives with Narcan: Westgate distributes medication on National Overdose Awareness Day

Stephanie Brandenburg rushed out of her car after spotting a man who was unresponsive in the middle of the road.

It appeared as if he was having a drug overdose in front of her, though she couldn’t be sure.

She got her purse and pulled out a dose of Narcan, which with only a few sprays up a person’s nose can reverse an opioid overdose. Seconds later, Brandenburg said she remembered the man’s eyes popping open.

“I knew it wouldn’t hurt him if it wasn’t an overdose (and) I knew it would wake him up if it was,” she remembered thinking.

Brandenburg is director of sales at the Westgate Las Vegas, which for years has provided information on Naloxone, the name-brand version of Narcan, to its employees. On Friday, Westgate, working with the Victoria’s Voice Foundation, gave around 2,000 Narcan sprays to its workers for National Overdose Awareness Day, which was Saturday.

Westgate Resorts President David Siegel and his wife, Jackie Siegel, who also sits on the company’s board, established the nonprofit foundation in 2019.

In 2015, their daughter Victoria, 18, died from what was later determined to be an overdose involving the prescription antidepressant Zoloft and methadone. Her path into addiction was mapped in a diary she left behind. It built the framework of a book David and Jackie Siegel would publish together,“Victoria’s Voice,” and led them to establish the foundation, which aims to reduce drug experimentation, addiction and overdose deaths among children.

Since its inception, the foundation has created drug-prevention programs, resources for parents to recognize the signs of drug use and a national campaign promoting Naloxone.

“If the first responder had Naloxone when she passed away she would still be here today,” Jackie Siegel said about their daughter’s death. “We got a grant from the government to distribute Naloxone to make it available nationwide.”

Cami Christensen, Westgate’s president and general manager, said the company was able to secure $100,000 worth of Narcan. Since the Siegels got involved with speaking out on issues around drug addiction, Christensen said Narcan had become part of the company’s culture.

“We were all sitting around a few months ago trying to decide, ‘Hey, what are we going to do this year?’ ” Christensen said. “And yeah, purple ribbons are great, but it doesn’t put the ability to save someone’s life in your hands.”

In America, the drug has become increasingly needed.

From 2017 to 2022, opioid overdose deaths in the United States rose from 47,600 to 81,806, a 71% increase, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The epidemic has hit teens especially hard. Nearly two dozen 14- to 18-year-olds died each week in 2022 from drug overdoses, UCLA Health reported.

At the same time, Narcan is easier to get now than ever. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Naloxone for over-the-counter use in 2023, though the drug was made available for free without a prescription in Nevada the prior year.

“Hopefully they never have to use it, but chances are someone’s going to have to use it someday,” Jackie Siegel said of the Narcan distributed to Westgate employees. “So this is all being proactive and saving lives from the opioid epidemic.”

Christensen said members of the resort’s security team, who carry Narcan on them, have previously used the drug to save people’s lives. Jackie Siegel believes the drug should be in every household, even if people don’t necessarily know anyone around them dealing with drug addiction.

“You don’t want to believe that anyone’s going to be doing a drug at your house, but they can also be on over-the-counter opioids as well and mix it with alcohol,” she said. “So it’s always better to have it on hand.”

Brandenburg remembers the short back-and-forth she had with the man lying in the road after she used Narcan on him. She told him where he was and that he needed to get out of traffic. He gave her a short response: “I want to die.”

After dragging him to the side of the road, she said the man started to cry, saying that no one could see him. Comforting him, she held the man and, after he asked, started to sing the same song she had sung to her kids when it was time to go to bed.

She hasn’t seen him since he was taken away by paramedics.

“It just seems like something that humans … should carry so that they can tell somebody that they’re not going to die that day,” said Brandenburg, who started carrying the drug in memory of Victoria Siegel. “Not today.”