Census team's quick action may have saved driver's life
They were out late Monday to help find the city's homeless, but Thomas J. Tinlin, the city's commissioner of transportation, found someone else in need of help. And he and others may have saved the man's life.
The man, 23, was in his car, stopped at a red light at L Street and East Broadway in South Boston, slouched against the driver's side window, unconscious and barely breathing.
"You could just tell something wasn't right," said Tinlin, who was out with a team as part of the mayor's annual census to count the city's homeless.
The light turned green, and the car still didn't move. It was 11:20 p.m.
When Tinlin and others with his team opened the car door, they had to catch the man from falling out. They called 911, and operators told them what to do: recline the car seat, make sure the man was breathing, make sure he had a pulse, "and wait for the cavalry to come."
At one point, Tinlin realized the car was still in drive and reached over, put it in park, and turned off the ignition. A friend of the man's had arrived and tried talking to him, but he still was unconscious.
"You got the sense that this poor kid was slipping away," Tinlin said.
Emergency crews arrived and determined that the man was suffering from a heroin overdose. EMTs gave him a Narcan shot, a dose of adrenaline used to treat overdoses, and he slowly regained consciousness.
He was taken by ambulance to Boston Medical Center. Police later told Tinlin that his team's response and the quick call to 911 might have saved his life.
City officials did not provide the man's identity, but one said he recovered once emergency medical services provided treatment. After he was held at the hospital for observation, he was reportedly released.
EMS chief Richard Serino said Tinlin and his colleagues did all of the right things.
"Anybody who comes across a situation like that, you always have adrenaline running," Serino said, "and the ability to step up, do the right thing, helped save a life."
Tinlin, for his part, shared the praise, with the EMTs and the 911 operator. "They asked all the right questions; it was just amazing," he said.
After the night's work on the census, Tinlin thought of the man they were able to save. At least they got him off the road, he said.
"People in need present themselves to you in so many different ways," Tinlin said.
Milton Valencia can be reached at mvalencia@globe.com. 