Mother creates app to reduce overdose deaths after losing daughter
By Keely McCormick
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PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida (WFTS) — A mother in St. Petersburg is making it her life mission to reduce the number of overdose deaths in our country.
According to the CDC, more than 100,000 people died from a drug overdose in 2022 alone.
Carolyn Bradfield started a company called Interact Lifeline. Its original purpose was to educate people on the dangers of fentanyl and opioids. It also aims to keep people connected to treatment after they get out of rehab.
Bradfield started the company after she lost her daughter to an overdose in 2017.
“Like many, many families over the past years, I had a personal tragedy in my family. My daughter overdosed and died at Christmas,” Bradfield said.
A tragedy that most mothers never recover from. Bradfield said she felt her daughter’s death was a call to action.
“Pretty soon after her death, I started researching why were people relapsing and overdosing at such a high rate,” Bradfield said.
From there, Bradfield used her technology and business background to create Interact Lifeline. It’s a technology service that focuses on helping recovery programs and keeping people connected to treatment online after rehab.
She’s also working on an app that will launch next year. This will actually be able to detect a potential overdose.
Bradfield said, “It’s designed to prevent overdoses and overdose deaths by taking data out of your fitness tracker.”
The app connects with your Apple Watch, Fitbit, or whatever you use to track your fitness. From there, it monitors your vitals and heart rate. The team can then detect a potential overdose.
“So the minute we see that happen, we reach out, we give you 30 seconds to respond to the ‘are you ok’ but at the same time were also alerting your emergency contacts,” Bradfield said.
The app has your exact location so they can get help to you as soon as possible. Bradfield said this would have saved her daughter’s life.
“Now, my daughter, when she overdosed, she was a mile from the trauma hospital. She was around a lot of people; they did not intervene,” Bradfield explained.
She said she hopes this app can see lives and prevent other families from dealing with the devastation that her family went through.
She also encourages everyone to have Narcan in their medicine cabinet or even carry it in a purse. That can save someone’s life.
You can buy Narcan over the counter, or the locations below offer free Narcan.
Specialty Care Center at 1105 E. Kennedy Blvd. University Area Health Center at 13601 N. 22nd St. Sulphur Springs Health Center at 8605 N. Mitchell Ave. Tuberculosis Center at 8515 N. Mitchell Ave.
To request free Narcan to be delivered to your home, visit: projectopioidcfl.org/getnarcan
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