A 41-year-old man died at the Rainier Beach library just after 3pm February 13 after library staffers tried but were unable to revive him with Narcan and CPR. The library shut down for the rest of the afternoon.
According to library spokeswoman Laura Gentry, library patrons “alerted staff that there was something wrong with a patron at the computer area”; thinking the man had overdosed, a staffer administered Narcan while other staff called 911. The 911 call taker told them to try CPR, but library staffers and medics who showed up a few minute later couldn’t revive the patron.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office later reported that the man died of “chronic alcohol use disorder,” not an overdose. According to the CDC, about 178,000 people die in the US from excessive drinking every year…