SAN DIEGO (BP) – When pastor Dale Huntington took his family and a group of GenSend interns out for ice cream, he wasn’t expecting to perform CPR on a man who was likely experiencing a drug-overdose.

What began as a traumatic situation later became an opportunity to minister to his community.

While the group was getting ice cream, they noticed a man being dragged out of the market area where they were and being placed on the sidewalk. People were slapping the man in an attempt to wake him as he started to lose consciousness.

Huntington, lead pastor at City Life Church in southeast San Diego, said it was clear the man was most likely a drug overdose.

“I started yelling asking if anyone had any Narcan,” Huntington told Baptist Press. “I normally keep it with me, but I didn’t expect to need it at the ice cream shop.”

Narcan or Naloxone is a nasal spray that reverses the immediate effects of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. Fentanyl overdoses have become commonplace around the country, particularly over the last couple years.

“I called 911 and they asked me to check on his breathing. When he wasn’t breathing, they asked me to initiate CPR compressions,” Huntington said. “I think I just didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t know who else was going to. It took several minutes before the EMTs came. We watched him die in front of us, and then watched him start breathing again, even if it was faint.”

Once the EMTs took over the situation and took the man away, Huntington said the group went home and “processed and prayed” together.

In a July post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Huntington said he was still processing the event much later.

“I’m still shaking. My body hurts too,” he posted. “I want to cry. I hope he makes it.

“I’m mad at myself for not having Narcan on me at the ice cream place. But from now on I will always have it.”

Huntington was so distraught about not being prepared for the situation, he soon decided to return to the market where the event took place to offer Narcan to the businesses there.

“Another pastor had only like a week before blessed me with like 20 extra supplies of Narcan,” Huntington said. 

“I was able to go to all of the markets on Market Street, the smoke shops, the liquor stores and provide them with Narcan should an emergency come up. One of the markets told me they had been asked for Narcan in an emergency situation only a few weeks ago and they had wished that they had had it.

“I took it to the same market where we saw the man overdose, and it was really nice to go back and hear from the store owner that he was in fact alive when he was taken in the ambulance.”

Huntington said he first started to become educated about the dangers of the nationwide Fentanyl epidemic through the local police, who told him they see people under 18 dying almost daily from overdoses.

Statistics indicate the problem is not unique to the San Diego area.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fentanyl is a major contributing factor in overdoses across the nation. Data indicates more than 80,000 people died from an opioid overdose in 2021, an increase from just over 70,000 in 2020.

The drug is so popular because it is cheap and easy to hide. Dealers will often mix in a dose with other drugs they sell. Fentanyl is so potent even first-time exposure through touch can be lethal.

Huntington encouraged church leaders to take note of these nationwide trends and prepare accordingly.

“I think every community in America needs to understand Fentanyl’s effects and what an overdose looks like. I think every church should have access to Narcan and Narcan training,” he said.

“We’re beyond the point that this only affects ‘communities of concern.’ Fentanyl and drug overdoses are in every single neighborhood, from the very richest to the very poorest. It’s time that even pastors understood that, because it could be someone you love.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Timothy Cockes is a Baptist Press staff writer.)