Luis Garcia is a retired firefighter and paramedic from the Boynton Beach Fire Department in southeast Florida. Since retiring, Garcia has become an advocate for opioid overdose prevention. After 28 years of serving in the field of emergency services, Garcia had his sights set on living a quieter life after retirement, along with his savings. However, responding to his first overdose case made Garcia take a different route.
Luis Garcia was a paramedic for many years, and therefore had a lot of encounters with Narcan (naloxone), which is used to treat an emergency case of opioid overdose by “stopping” opioids from binding to the brain.
After seeing how Narcan saves lives, he wanted to dedicate his entire retirement to ensuring that access is not restricted. However, when the state would not fund his efforts, he used his own money to help…