An emotional video showed some homeless men and a woman trying in vain to revive an amputee man in a wheelchair who suddenly died on the streets of Portland.
According to Kevin Dahlgren, he and street photographer Tara walked up to a group of homeless people trying to revive a man, identified simply as Gary. The footage showed them trying their best to administer CPR, which they did poorly by rubbing his chest and giving him Narcan – an OTC medicine used to treat drug overdose.
He joined in trying to resuscitate Gary, laid him flat on the ground, gave him more Narcan, and started calling 911 while administering CPR.
He said the paramedics arrived minutes later and took over. They then asked if anybody knew his medical or drug history. Dahlgren rushed to the public housing facility which Gary had recently moved into to get the needed information.
Unfortunately, no staff were found to check for his record – most importantly, his full name and date of birth. They were left dismayed after pressing the doorbell and pounding the door for many minutes and nobody answered.
Help however came from another homeless man who provided the needed information, but Gary was pronounced dead where he was found. His death brought tears to the eyes of the homeless group – he must have been loved.
Though his cause of death was not yet revealed, the comment section blamed the use of hard drugs for his death and wondered why everybody walked about with Narcan. The government was also blamed for the open-door border policy that saw the flow of drugs such as fentanyl into the US.