by Jim Clayborn | RNN
Shocking body camera footage shows the moment a Florida police officer overdosed on fentanyl after accidental exposure during a traffic stop.
While on a traffic stop Monday night, Tavares Police Department officer Courtney Bannick discovered narcotics on one of the passengers in the vehicle. The substance, according to detective Courtney Sullivan, was located in rolled up currency.
Despite handling the substance with care, including wearing gloves, the wind was roaring during the traffic stop, exposing Bannick to the highly toxic substance. But she didn’t yet know that. After police transported the individuals who possessed the drugs,
Fortunately, officers on scene noticed that she had been exposed and quickly rushed into action, administering three doses of Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of opioids.
Bannick began choking and stopped breathing several times, as officers rushed to save her.
Terrifying body camera footage shows a wide-eyed Bannick barely able to breath. As the officers waited for the ambulance to arrive, Bannick drifted in and out of consciousness. The officers lightly slapped her face and reminded her to breathe, but at one point, she was unresponsive.
“She was completely lifeless. She looks deceased in these videos,” Sullivan told WOFL-TV. “So she’s very thankful today.”
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Bannick was taken to the hospital, where she will make a full recovery thanks to the quick-thinking officers. According to WOFL, she will be back at work by Friday.
The Tavares Police Department released the body cam footage to warn others about the danger of fentanyl.
“Officer Bannick really wants others to take away that this drug is dangerous. It’s dangerous for not only yourself but others around you. Something as simple as the wind could expose you and just like that, your life could end,” Sullivan said
Bannick said after the incident, “I have done this one-hundred times before the same way. It only takes one time and a minimal amount. … I’m thankful I wasn’t alone and had immediate help.”
One department officer (who asked not to be named by WOFL) blasted what he called “(President) Biden’s open-border disaster” for the horrifying challenges his fellow officers had to face nearly 2,000 miles away.
Drug overdoses from synthetic opioids like fentanyl have exploded in recent years, as the Mexican border has been thrown wide open under President Biden’s administration.
The vast majority of fentanyl comes across that border with drug mules, mostly originating in China.
The substance is both highly addictive and highly toxic — a lethal dose is as little as 2 mg — which is why illicit drug manufacturers pushed it into drug markets.
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