By: Sy Becker

Article Credit: MassLive

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – 27-year-old Nurse Lexi Marra of Belchertown has earned the right to be honored by the Western Massachusetts Red Cross as a Hometown Hero.

“When I opened the door, I saw the needle sticking out of his mouth. I also saw a bunch of white baggies in the car,” said Marra.

Inside those baggies was a drug called Fentanyl.

Lt. Jim Albert of the Holyoke Police Department told 22News, “Fentanyl is a very dangerous substance, it doesn’t take but a few crystals of a microscopic level to provide the injury and risk of overdose and death.”

The two police officers who helped stabilize the drug abuse victim with Narcan were themselves contaminated by the Fentanyl in the car, touching their skin as the life or death drama shifted from a Holyoke street corner to the Holyoke Medical Center emergency department.

“They could have also overdosed, they could have also become unresponsive, not breathing. We also gave them Narcan as well,” said Marra.

Holyoke Police are so grateful to Lexi for helping save the lives of the two men in blue. 

Her dad Nick Marra is so proud of her, “Very rare, from all the people I know, she really has wanted to do this all of her life.”

“This is what I was trained to do for four years. I’ve wanted to do this since I was five years of age. My babysitter was training to be a nurse, she’s an orthopedic surgeon now, I remember looking up to her so much,” said Marra.

Nurse Lexi Marra, a Hometown Hero in every sense of the term. The Western Massachusetts Red Cross honors Lexi Thursday morning.