First, they had to save her life.

Then they had to charge her.

Worcester police administered Narcan to a woman who allegedly crashed into a parked patrol car while suffering from a suspected heroin overdose on Friday, the department said in a Facebook post.

Around 2:12 p.m. yesterday, two Worcester officers arrived in their squad cars to respond to a disturbance call at 531 Main Street, police said. They parked their cruisers nearby and entered the building.

"The officers had just entered the building when someone notified them that a car had just crashed into one of the cruisers," Worcester police said in a statement. "The officers looked outside and observed a blue Ford Escape smashed head on into the driver's door of one of the cruisers."

When the officers rushed to the crash scene, they saw a young woman slumped over and apparently unconscious in the driver's seat of the Ford Escape. After she did not respond when they knocked on the car's windows, an officer smashed out one rear door window to unlock the vehicle.

Once inside, the officer saw hypodermic needles in the car and suspected the woman had overdosed while driving, police said. The driver was given several doses of Narcan, the anti-overdose drug that can revive people from near-fatal overdoses in seconds, and regained consciousness at the scene.

Worcester police successfully treated 73 overdoses with Narcan last year, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported.

The driver, later identified as 24-year-old Melissa Cain of Worcester, was taken to a local hospital for observation and arrested on charges of operating a motor vehicle negligently so as to endanger and operating under the influence of drugs.

Cain is scheduled for arraignment in the Worcester County District Courthouse on Monday.