March 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 28

L AW R E V I E W

Limited Duty Applicable to Overdose Cardiac Arrest
By James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D.

W

ith the spread of opioid abuse nationwide, some parks and public areas have become venues for opioid use, which may result in an onsite overdose. The opioid crisis has been identified as one of the Top
Trends for Parks and Recreation in 2018: www.nrpa.org/blog/toptrends-in-parks-and-recreation-for-2018/.
As a result, many public park and recreation agencies are grappling with an appropriate response to a potentially life-threatening opioid overdose scenario on their
premises. Some agencies have considered
having Nalaxone readily available on-site.
Nalaxone (sold under the brand name
Narcan) is a prescription medicine that
blocks the effects of opioids and reverses
an overdose. Nalaxone does not create
any intoxicating side effects. On the contrary, it will not have any effect on an individual who has not overdosed on opioids.
At a cost of approximately $30 per dose,
first responders are spending more and
more resources on the overdose reversal
drug Nalaxone. Some local governments

26

Parks & Recreation

have spent tens of thousands of dollars
on Nalaxone (www.npr.org/sections/
health-shots/2017/08/08/541626627/
first-responders-spending-more-on-over
dose-reversal-drug).
If Naloxone is made available on-site,
park and recreation agencies may then
have to assume the considerable cost and
administrative burden of training their
personnel to properly identify and administer Nalaxone to a nonresponsive individual on-site who may have overdosed
on opioids. A nonresponsive individual,
however, may or may not be in apparent
cardiac arrest from an opioid overdose.
Moreover, an individual may be nonresponsive because of a condition totally

| M A R C H 2 0 1 8 | W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N . O R G

unrelated to opioids, including a serious
head trauma or other medical condition.
When one assumes a duty that would
not otherwise occur under existing law,
one may assume a responsibility to execute that duty in a non-negligent fashion. Accordingly, once park and recreation
agencies get into the business of providing
Nalaxone, let alone having their personnel
administer these drugs, an assumed duty
must be implemented in a non-negligent
fashion. In so doing, if it would lead to any
unreasonable delay in prompt summoning
of competent medical attention (i.e., calling 911), the agency may be worse off from
a liability perspective.
Absent a statute expressly imposing a
legal duty to do so, which is highly unlikely, the law would not generally require a public park and recreation agency to intervene or provide treatment in a
potentially life-threatening situation, like
an opioid overdose. On the contrary, the



March 2018 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2018 - Parks & Recreation

March 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 1
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2021
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