‘I thought he was going to die.’ Columbia officer praised for saving overdose victim

In his 26 years on the Columbia police force, Sgt. Rick Gunter hadn’t seen an overdose quite like the one he encountered Thursday near the Harbison Boulevard shopping district.

A 29-year-old man was sweating profusely, convulsing on the ground and foaming from the mouth. His eyes were rolling into the back of his head. He could barely speak, and the words he could utter often were incoherent.

“I thought he was going to die any second. What can I do to help him?” Gunter said Friday, recounting what threatened to be the man’s final minutes of life.

Gunter raced to the first aid kit in the trunk of his police cruiser and grabbed Narcan, a drug that police often inject to fight opiate overdoses. The young man had needle marks in his right arm.

The sergeant used a device that injected a pre-set dosage of the drug into the man’s thigh. An ambulance later arrived at the Waters Edge at Harbison Apartments near the Columbiana Centre shopping mall and took him to Parkridge hospital. Along the way, a second dose of Narcan was administered.

The man with shoulder-length, reddish hair and wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants had said he was from Myrtle Beach and had been in town a couple of days. He told officers he wanted to commit suicide.

Later at the hospital, the man said he had taken about 10 Percocets, fentanyl, heroin and more, Gunter said of reports he received from officers there.

Doctors told Gunter’s colleagues that the Narcan injections probably saved the young man’s life, Gunter said.

A Columbia police Facebook post Friday credited Gunter with “his life-saving efforts.”

“I just hope he lives a long and prosperous life, and gets some help for his condition,” said the sergeant, who trains younger officers in the department’s west region that stretches from Irmo to near Riverbanks zoo.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 6:21 PM with the headline "‘I thought he was going to die.’ Columbia officer praised for saving overdose victim."