{"id":786169,"date":"2026-07-07T14:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786169\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:04:13","slug":"we-rushed-to-help-a-man-whod-overdosed-in-plain-sight-hiding-him-would-not-have-saved-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/786169\/","title":{"rendered":"We rushed to help a man who’d overdosed in plain sight. Hiding him would not have saved him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 5 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

This First Person article is the\u00a0experience of Winnipegger Amanda Mondaca. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see\u00a0this FAQ.<\/a>You can read more First Person articles\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was one of those warm Winnipeg summer evenings where the city felt alive. Patios were full, sidewalks were busy, cars lined the streets. It felt good to see the city like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My partner and I were on our way to Alleyways Market in the Exchange District. As we were walking down Bannatyne Avenue toward Main Street, we noticed someone slumped over on the corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At first glance, he could have easily been mistaken for someone sleeping. There was a half-empty bottle beside him. It would have been easy to assume he had simply passed out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But we didn’t assume.\u00a0We walked over and asked if he was OK.\u00a0No response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We asked again, louder.\u00a0Still nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was shaken, then a sternum rub was performed. Nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was carefully lowered onto his back and checked for breathing and pulse. 911 was called. The line was busy at first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was not hidden.\u00a0And somehow, nobody stopped.- Amanda Mondaca<\/p>\n

While trying again, a naloxone kit was pulled out and the first dose was given.\u00a0The man was breathing, but only about seven breaths a minute. Far too slow. He remained completely unresponsive.\u00a0The 911 operator instructed rescue breaths, which were begun immediately while a second dose of naloxone was prepared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still no response.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, a fire truck turned off Main onto Bannatyne Avenue. For a brief moment, it felt like help had arrived.\u00a0But it kept going. There was another emergency nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eventually, his breathing became more regular, but he still did not wake up. That detail has stayed with me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Naloxone reverses opioids, but it does not reverse the effects of an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drug supply, which may include sedatives<\/a> and other non-opioid substances. People can start breathing again and still not regain consciousness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AAmanda and Victor Mondaca. ‘We make communities safer by making sure fewer people are suffering in the first place,’ she writes. (Submitted by Amanda Mondaca)<\/p>\n

And I keep coming back to something else.\u00a0He was found because he was visible.\u00a0It was a busy corner on a Friday night. People were walking in every direction. Cars were passing constantly. He was wearing a bright red shirt. He was not hidden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And somehow, nobody stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hiding suffering not a solution<\/p>\n

This is not said to blame anyone. It is said because it is easy in a busy city to assume someone else has already checked, or to not fully register what is being passed.\u00a0But in that moment, no one had stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It raises something I cannot stop thinking about \u2014 what would have happened if he had been in a quieter place, farther from traffic, farther from foot movement, farther from chance? Visibility is what made intervention possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is what I keep thinking about when I read about what is happening downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recently, there have been reports<\/a> of people who are unhoused being searched, detained, having harm reduction supplies confiscated, and being pushed away from areas where outreach workers and health-care teams know to find them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I keep thinking about what that changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When people are pushed farther from public spaces, services and supports, we have to ask what gets lost in that distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We cannot confuse making suffering less visible with making people safer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I understand why people are frustrated by visible substance use in public spaces. I understand the desire for safety and order. But I think we have to be honest about what we are actually reacting to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We should be angry that visible suffering is treated as the problem.- Amanda Mondaca<\/p>\n

We should be angry.\u00a0Not at people living through substance use disorder, trauma, homelessness and poverty, but at the conditions that leave so many people with nowhere safe to go. We should be angry that people are using substances in public, because there is no private place where they will be safe if something goes wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We should be angry that the drug supply is so toxic that one exposure can require multiple interventions and still leave someone unconscious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We should be angry that visible suffering is treated as the problem, rather than what created it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we need is not one approach, but several. Housing that people can actually access.\u00a0Mental health care without barriers.\u00a0Trauma-informed supports.\u00a0Detox and treatment without long waits.\u00a0Safe supply and drug checking.\u00a0Recovery supports.\u00a0And connection to community and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because people cannot recover if they are not alive.\u00a0And I cannot stop thinking about what happens when people are moved farther away from the places where they are most likely to be seen in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We do not make communities safer by making suffering disappear from view.\u00a0We make communities safer by making sure fewer people are suffering in the first place \u2014 and by ensuring that when they are, they are not alone and out of reach.<\/p>\n

To me, the question shouldn’t be whether or not people are tired of witnessing addiction and homelessness.\u00a0To me, we should ask ourselves: Will we be the kind of community that responds to suffering with care? Or the kind that demands suffering disappear out of view?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-786169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}