By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Village police and Massena Rescue responded to a report of an impaired woman in public in need of medical attention, but representatives from both agencies would not say if it was drug-related, citing privacy laws.

Massena Police Sgt. Mark Englert said police received a call of an impaired woman on Westwood Drive around 3:41 p.m. Tuesday. A local resident filmed the incident and posted it to Facebook, but the video has since been taken down.

“We found a female in need of medical attention,” Englert said. “She appeared to be impaired and we stayed until rescue arrived and rendered aid to her.”

He said the woman was 28 years old and “familiar to the Massena area.” She was not charged with a crime and was taken to Massena Memorial Hospital for treatment. Englert declined to give further information, including what police believe caused her impairment.

“We’re not willing to release that information at this time. We’re talking about a subject who was in need of medical attention and we want to respect that person’s privacy and HIPAA laws,” Englert said. HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a law that keeps patients’ medical records private.

He would not comment if any drug paraphernalia was discovered at the scene, but said police did not administer naloxone. Naloxone is a nasally administered medication that reverses the effects of an opiate or opioid overdose. It is sometimes marketed under the name brand Narcan.

Massena Rescue Squad President Linda Hillard said she could not release any information about the specific incident, due to HIPAA, but records show rescue personnel did not administer naloxone at all on Tuesday.

She said between Sept. 5 and Oct. 5, Massena Rescue personnel have administered naloxone four times.

She said with the warmer months, calls for overdoses tend to rise, but they’ve recently tapered off.

“The past couple of months have been pretty stable,” Hillard said.

She believes since the state and local awareness groups have offered public naloxone training and free naloxone kits, there could be cases where people are administering it before first responders get to the scene.

“So far, it hasn’t happened that we know of, but we could get to the scene and they’ve had [naloxone] and we don’t know,” Hillard said. “That’s the biggest problem for us, they don’t always tell us, especially if the cops are there.”