Park police save man who overdosed in Greensburg Catholic Cemetery

Four Westmoreland County Park Police officers saved a man’s life Thursday after he was found in a Hempfield cemetery experiencing a drug overdose.

The officers were starting their shifts and leaving in their cars from the county garage on Donohoe Road when someone flagged one of them down outside Greensburg Catholic Cemetery, department office manager Tiffany DeCarlo said.

Officers Kyra Haile, Steven Fontana and Michael Shabe and Lt. Mark Castin sprang into action around 3:30 p.m. The man was lying facedown in the grass with a weak pulse and, while paramedics were on the way, they administered naloxone, she said.

He began to regain consciousness and was taken to a hospital.

“We are incredibly proud of our officers who saved this man’s life,” Chief Henry Fontana said in a statement. “Their quick thinking and decisive action is a testament to their training and dedication to serving and protecting our community.”

There were 125 successful opioid overdose reversals by police using naloxone in Westmoreland County between November 2014 and June 2018, according to data reported to the state Attorney General’s office by the departments. The departments were not required to notify the office upon a reversal.

Naloxone has become widely available over the past several years as a way to combat accidental drug overdose deaths, which hit a peak in 2017 in Westmoreland County with 193. Those figures have dropped in recent years. Total numbers for 2022 were not yet available from the county coroner’s office.