Abrahim Abduelmula says he didn’t truly appreciate the scope of the opioid crisis in Canada until he was confronted with an overdose victim.

“It was then that I understood that this was much bigger than I had previously thought,” says the fourth-year nursing student. “This made me realize that we aren’t doing enough as a community to battle this crisis.”

His project, Second Breath, aims to leverage resources to prevent overdoses from becoming fatal. Abduelmula is working with the RBC Summer Founders Program to make the idea a reality.

“A drug called Naloxone can reverse the effects of overdose, if it reaches patients in time,” he says. “I want to develop an app that will alert anyone holding a Naloxone kit near any individual who has overdosed, allowing for help to arrive in a much timelier manner, possibly saving a life.”

This is the fourth in a series of articles introducing participants in the RBC Summer Founders Program, leading up to a showcase of their prototypes on August 1 at EPICentre. Learn more on the centre’s website.