Do airlines have to buy overdose kits on planes?

The tragic story of a young man who died as a result of a drug overdose aboard an international flight Delta Air Lines from Boston to Los Angeles made headlines last week for all the wrong reasons. His death was terrible – found with a needle coming out of an arm, unconscious and slumped in one of the bathroom cabinets while descending into LAX.

But as terrible as the death of this man, it was certainly not unusual. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2016, more than 42,000 people died as a result of an opioid overdose. Shockingly, drug overdoses have since become the leading cause of death among Americans under 50 years of age.

What makes this case unusual is not just the fact that it happened on an airplane, but unlike emergency services in the field, flight attendants do not have access to a potentially vital drug, the naloxone – or more commonly known as Narcan.

Narcan is so effective at counteracting the effects of an opioid overdose that the FDA approved nasal spray has been used in emergency rooms for over 40 years. Many health professionals are realizing that early access to Narcan is an essential part of the emergency treatment of an opioid overdose, to the point that the drug is now systematically administered by many law enforcement agencies and other basic care providers.

A single dose of Narcan could revive someone for up to 20 minutes, the time needed to hijack and land a plane and get professional medical badistance. In the case of last week, paramedics took just 10 minutes to get on the plane after landing in Los Angeles. But without access to Narcan, it was not fast enough for the victim.

Eyewitnesses said that he had been lying out of the plane in a body bag.

Flight attendants and health professionals on board the plane tried unsuccessfully to help the man. They did the CPR and fixed a defibrillator, but as one doctor said, "What we need is Narcan, and there is no Narcan."

What is surprising, though, is that security advocates have been calling for Narcan for a number of years to become a mandatory part of first aid equipment on board. Last March alone, the AFA again asked the FAA to make naloxone a common medical item.

"Medical emergencies among pbadengers have included and will continue to include an overdose of opioids. Unfortunately, pbadengers are at risk of dying from opioid overdose in the airplanes, due to the glaring lack of access to naloxone, "AFA said in an open letter to the FAA – how accurate this prediction was.

Delta is now announcing that Narcan will begin to include its medical kits, although it is unclear when the process of storing the drug in its entire fleet will be complete. American Airlines has also deployed Narcan since last December, although only health professionals are allowed to administer the drug.

Unfortunately, the storage of Narcan remains entirely at the discretion of the airline and many airlines do not yet have this drug.