SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A new tool given to San Francisco police allowed an officer to save the life of a man who overdosed on opiates.

Officer Mike Mellone is one of several officers trained to use the city's new naloxone rescue kit.

Police said Mellone was called to help a man found unconscious on Capp Street in June. Mellone sprayed the antidote into the man's nose. The man survived and was released from the hospital a short time later.

"Within a few minutes, the person who was previously unconscious and was having trouble breathing, I started to see signs that he was coming to and by that time the ambulance crew had arrived," Mellone recalled at a press conference on Friday.

Mellone is being recommended for the department's "Life Saving Award."