A San Marcos deputy nearly lost his life after being accidentally exposed to Fentanyl on July 3, 2021.
A body camera caught the moment Deputy David Faiivae collapsed on his back in a parking lot last month just seconds after he finished testing a white powder.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department is now using the footage of the traumatic incident to create a public safety video about the dangerous effects of Fentanyl which they released on Thursday, August 5.
"If it wasn't for the quick-thinking of his Field Training Officer, Corporal Scott Crane, in administering Naloxone, Deputy Faiivae would not be alive today," the department wrote in a press release.
"Fentanyl overdoses are on the rise throughout our county," said Sheriff Bill Gore in the public safety video. "Everyday, deputies recover fentanyl in our communities and the county jails are not immune to the dangers of this drug."
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the drug is the cause of 461 fatal overdoses in San Diego County in 2020. Officials say that number could reach 700 in 2021.
Faiivae was saved by Corporal Scott Crane who ran to his patrol car for naloxone, a nasal spray used to reverse the effects of opioids.
"I ran over to him and I grabbed him, and he was OD‘ing,” Crane said.
When the paramedics arrived, Faiivae was loaded into an ambulance and Crane said he overdosed the whole way to the hospital.
“It is an invisible killer,” Crane told the Union-Tribune. “He would have died in that parking lot if he was alone.”