Alex Roehner glances down at the boundaries. Contrary to the stereotype of a drug addict small computer mounted next to her driver’s seat. Roehner, one of only two female lieutenants at Yonkers’ Empress Emergency Services, scans the screen, reviewing emergency calls from all over the city, while radios from the police depart- ment, the fire department, and her own headquarters squawk. A box of blue plastic gloves is tucked in next to her, and her “bus,” as the 48-year-old calls her advanced life-support ambulance, is loaded with all she needs to open an airway, treat a cardiac arrest, staunch bleeding and — more and more frequently — resuscitate opioid- overdose victims.
Roehner has pushed countless syringes of Narcan (also known as naloxone, a medication that counteracts an overdose) into opioid users. “We’ve all seen incredible things,” she says. “We’ve brought back people who should’ve been dead years ago, and a lot of times, I’ve picked up the same people multiple times in a day.”