SA国际传媒

SA国际传媒

High school student designs Narcan dispenser for public spaces

After finding the body of an overdose victim last spring, 17-year-old Kanishk Nazareth wanted to do something to help save lives

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JD Mullane

BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. 鈥 Kanishk Nazareth was doing spring cleanup of soccer fields with his teammates in northeast Philadelphia when they found a body.

鈥淚t鈥檚 right off the Roosevelt Boulevard. There鈥檚 this ditch and little creek, and we went down there to pick up the trash,鈥 said Kanishk, 17, a senior at Central Bucks West High School.

The dead man had been unnoticed for some time. Near one of his hands was a prescription pill bottle, indicating opioids.

鈥淭he authorities came to us later and said that the postmortem showed it was an overdose,鈥 he said.

The scene shocked.

鈥淎 scarring image,鈥 he said.

He knows all about the drug and opioid epidemic. Knows that about 70,000 Americans, most of them young, die from overdoses each year. But it didn鈥檛 hit home until that scene at the fields he鈥檚 played on since he was child.

鈥淚t hadn鈥檛 really been made personal to me,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 a person I knew, but it happened in a place I knew and loved. Those fields, really, it鈥檚 where I have great memories. To see this (drug) situation affecting a place close to my heart, I knew I had to do something good to try to curb this epidemic.鈥

He created the , a dispenser of Narcan, the life-saving antidote for opioid overdoses.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a box that provides Narcan to anyone,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou keep it in places where it鈥檚 easily accessible in populated areas. If anyone sees an overdose, all they have to do is run to the box, open it, and take out Narcan and administer it. The ODbox does two things: It makes Narcan available anywhere, and it gives any of us the power to save a life,鈥 he said.

The summer after finding the dead man, Kanishk enrolled in a business incubator class at the University of Pennsylvania. There, four kids were involved in developing the ODbox prototype, each tending to a task, and each eventually signing off, leaving Kanishk as 鈥渃hief of operations,鈥 he said.

His research also showed the drug epidemic is too big to handle for just politicians, health workers and police.

鈥淭his is a fight each of us has to take on,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an all-hands-on-deck situation.鈥

The ODbox is equipped with digital gizmos (designed by one of Kanishk鈥檚 friends in New Jersey) so when a box of Narcan is retrieved, an alert is sent to local 911, which gives the location of the box.

鈥淭his makes sure the person who overdoses can be stabilized and be taken to a hospital. Then, hopefully, they can get back on their feet and find the treatment they need to recover,鈥 he said.

The ODbox has won accolades from Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub, whose office made a short video about it.

He鈥檚 in discussion to produce ODbox with a Bensalem computer components company, just five minutes from the soccer field where he found the overdose victim. He鈥檚 also discussed ODbox the Philadelphia Department of Health, which directed him to pitch it to SEPTA, rehab centers and two colleges.

鈥淲e have a multitude of avenues we can take right now, and we鈥檙e working all of them,鈥 he said. 鈥淗opefully, within the next month or so, you鈥檒l hear about sales and see the first couple of our ODboxes going up.鈥

Kanishk lives in Warrington, a place he speaks fondly about.

鈥淚t鈥檚 more or less all I鈥檝e known,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 helped me become who I am today. It鈥檚 where all my best friends are. So to be able to create something like this and give back to the place that raised me, it鈥檚 all I can ask for.鈥

His parents are immigrants from India. They raised him to work hard and to be grateful for everything that he has.

鈥淢y parents worked really hard to get where they are,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey taught me to see the bigger picture. Any short-term pain you might be going through now, any short-term hard work or struggle you go through, it鈥檚 nothing compared to what other people who are less fortunate face every day, and maybe for their whole life.

鈥淏ecause I am fortunate to be raised where I am, there鈥檚 an obligation to give back. I believe that anyone who鈥檚 raised in an area like this, and has good fortune, it鈥檚 really important to do your best and to give back to the community,鈥 he said.

His dream college is the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton School of Business. He has applied and said he will know soon if he has been accepted for the fall semester.

鈥淚 definitely want to study business, and I鈥檝e done my research on entrepreneur resources at different schools, to see what resources they can offer to help bring (ODbox) along. So that was a big factor in applying to Penn,鈥 he said.

鈥斺赌斺赌

漏2020 Bucks County Courier Times, Levittown, Pa.