Woman saved from overdose at Will County Courthouse

A woman was saved from a drug overdose at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet thanks to a prosecutor who first saw the symptoms and the efforts of others to revive her.

On Thursday morning, Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Jaclyn Sopcic was in hallway on the fourth floor of the courthouse when she saw a woman propped up against a man who was speaking with his attorney.

“If you didn’t know, you’d thought she was sleeping,” Sopcic said.

Yet Sopcic saw something about the woman that alarmed her.

“I looked at her lips and they were blue.”

Sopcic said she recognized the woman was overdosing. She said she rushed to another courtroom to grab Narcan, an anti-overdose medication, and to seek assistance from Dr. Scott DuBois, a psychologist.

DuBois administered three doses of Narcan to the woman. Will County sheriff’s deputies arrived on-scene and performed life-saving measures on her. The woman was revived after several more doses of Narcan.

“We are just very grateful that she was able to be resuscitated,” DuBois said.

Sopcic is the lead prosecutor for Will County’s problem-solving courts, which aim to break the cycle of addiction for people through harm reduction techniques. DuBois is the coordinator for the problem-solving courts.

The deputies who helped revived the women were Deputy Bryan Lukich and Sgt. James Eiden, according to the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Lt. Tom Omiecinski, who oversees courthouse security, directed the incident with the Joliet Fire Department. Paramedics safely took the woman to a hospital.

In a statement, Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, said the “quick thinking and heroic actions” of Sopcic and DuBois saved the woman’s life from “becoming another fatality in the battle against potent illegal drugs, often laced with deadly fentanyl, that dealers are selling today in Will County and throughout this nation.

“To her credit, [Sopcic] observed the woman’s condition and immediately determined that this likely was an overdose situation.”

Glasgow said he plans to offer an accessory for officers that will allow them to carry Narcan with them at all times,

“A few minutes can make the difference between life and death, as demonstrated by what happened today within the walls of our courthouse,” he said.