A woman who survived the recent mass overdose in Penn North left the hospital Saturday determined to find help.

Two days earlier, a suspected “bad batch” of street drugs that swept through West Baltimore left her and at least 26 others hospitalized. The woman, who is in her 60s and has battled addiction for decades, said she had never before seen overdoses occur at that scale.

The incident “scared me straight,” said the woman, who requested anonymity to protect her privacy and speak candidly about a sensitive experience.

“[For] 45 years, I never wanted to stop” using, she added. “Today, I’m done.”

She headed directly from the hospital to Emerge Baltimore, a drug treatment center in Penn North.

But, when she arrived, she learned the facility was closed for the weekend. So were others in the immediate area, even as city officials have touted an “all hands on deck” response to the overdoses.

Standing outside the Penn North Metro station Saturday, near the epicenter of Thursday’s incident, the woman was hopeful that, between her family and Narcotics Anonymous, she had enough support to wait until Monday for treatment.

The woman said, around 9 a.m. Thursday, she was looking to buy heroin on North Avenue when she ran into dealers whose drugs she previously enjoyed. She purchased a pill from them for $3 and also received a free sample, known as a “tester.”

She said she broke off a piece of one pill — smaller than the head of a match — snorted it through a straw and slipped the rest into her pocket as she approached the busy intersection at North and Pennsylvania avenues.

The woman said she knew the drugs in Penn North were becoming more potent. But, in all her years getting high, she never experienced anything like what happened Thursday.

Within minutes, the woman began to feel dizzy and noticed herself high stepping, as if losing connection with the ground beneath her feet. She worried she might pass out in the street and get hit by a car.

She got herself safely to a playground around the corner and collapsed.

The woman has little memory of what happened over the next day. Later, she learned she was unconscious at the playground for about five hours before police found her and paramedics transported her to the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

There, she went into cardiac arrest and received multiple doses of the overdose-reversing medication Narcan. When she woke up Friday morning, the pills she had purchased were still in her pocket.

The woman was discharged from the hospital early the next day. Outside, she immediately crushed the remaining pills beneath her feet, then took an Uber to Emerge Baltimore, where a rainbow-painted door marks its Pennsylvania Avenue entrance.

Some employees showed up on a day off Saturday morning to help in the wake of Thursday’s mass overdose. The woman said they provided an informational pamphlet and Narcan but told her she couldn’t be evaluated by a doctor and connected to treatment until Monday.

Emerge Baltimore did not return a voicemail seeking comment.

Mayor Brandon Scott’s office said in an email statement that it remained “committed to connecting all residents impacted by the overdose epidemic, including those directly affected by the Penn North overdoses, to support services.”

The survivor said Saturday was her first time seeking treatment for addiction in over 15 years.

“My body was lucky to be able to fight it this time,” she said. “Next time, I might not fight it. I don’t want to take the chance.”

Hours later, the woman was searching for food at the corner of Pennsylvania and North, nearly the same spot where, days earlier, the suspected bad batch had begun to make her sick.

The IV marks from her hospital stay were visible on her arm. Nearby, the street was littered with empty pill bottles, naloxone, cigarettes and mini liquor bottles.

Later, she swayed to live music in a church parking lot, trying, she said, to “be around positive people and do positive things.”

The mayor’s office urges those seeking immediate help to call 988 for free, confidential support 24 hours a day. The hotline connects callers to services such as Baltimore Crisis Response Inc. For medical treatment during business hours, call the SPOT Mobile Clinic’s telemedicine line at 443-483-6150.