[SimoneFlen']

Great thread.

Just so damn sad that so many young people have chosen the wrong life to lead + their families have suffered immensely for it.

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My brother was a herion addict for about 6 months before he passed. With a mix of different personal life events he felt he had no where else to turn. When most people think or hear of a death caused by herion they think they must have OD. In my brother’s case it was nothing like that. He had gotten an infection from a dirty needle that would eventually end his beautiful life.

For a couple days we had thought he was going throw the normal withdraws of a drug addict. The shaking, the sweating,chills ect. But one weekend they got a lot worse. He couldnt talk or even walk on his own.. Little did we know he was having strokes in his brain causing his brain to partly shut down. You never no pain until you have to watch someone carry your weak brother to the car becausw he cant walk anymore.

After 2 weeks in the hospital and 2 different hospitals. Brain surgery, heart valve surgery, and stomach surgery there was not much left anyone could do. He had got an infection (sepsis) that spread throughout his whole body making all his organs shut down, his brain have strokes, and one of his heart valves give out. The doctors told us if he had made it he would be in a wheel chair his whole life and would have to live in assisted living, that he wouldn’t be “him”.

After 2 horrible weeks my brother passed away on his own February 5, 2015 at 1:05am.

I’m not telling his story to have people feel bad or to get attention. I want people to see how horrible this drug is. How it effects everyone. It took my beautiful brother away from my family and I, and no one should ever feel this kind of pain. We need to stop this drug before we lose anyone else to its horrible effects. I also want to say never forget to tell the people you care about that you love them because different things can happen everyday. Things we can’t plan. My brother always said he wanted to help people get clean once he was. I want to take his wishes and do the same so no family has to feel this pain.

Love,
His sister

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A 26 year old man from Anderson, Indiana passed away on August 3, 2016. He was a victim of the heroin epidemic.

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A 34 year old man from Worcester, Massachusetts passed away on August 1st, 2013 as a result of a heroin overdose.

I debated long and hard whether to post this or not. It's not the way I wanted anyone to see/remember my husband. But it's the last and only image I still seem to see. If you look at this and gasp, good. Maybe it will help some of those that are still using heroin to get clean. Or maybe it will help those that are clean to stay clean. You will never see this image, this will be left for your family and loved ones. This was about 30mins after getting into er. I didn't want to take them but the dr said take pictures so when he wakes up he will hopefully be scared. Later we found out he would never wake up. He had 3 beautiful young children, a home, a life and had only been using about a month. Heroin can affect anyone and take ahold of you quick. Be careful who you are with when you use also if that's what your doing. He was at a party, the people he was with left him on the floor and robbed him of everything but his shirt and shorts. Took someone at least a half hour after he stopped breathing to call an ambulance. He never had a chance. I, as his wife and mother of 2 of his children, had to see this. I got yelled at I didn't let him have a longer chance, yelled at for keeping him on tubes to long, yelled at which or no treatments did I want, yelled at for people to come visit (i had his visit list very restricted), told they wouldn't come cause couldn't see that, while going threw my own worst nightmare of loosing my other half. Please, please, please I beg of you, as his one year approaches Aug 1st, do NOT let this be you, do NOT let your family bare witness to such a tragedy. Your life is important and people do love you.

11/2/78-8/1/13

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A 27 year old man from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania passed away as a result of a heroin overdose.

My sister’s son, my beautiful nephew who I loved deeply, recently overdosed and passed away. He was addicted to heroin. He was 27 years old. He had struggles, he made mistakes. He wasn’t perfect, but he was very loved. He was a handsome, smart, loving and caring and talented person that had so many plans for his life. He loved us too, even through it all, he loved us. Heroin took that away. Heroin has taken his life and the lives of many of his friends. It’s a nightmare that we will never wake up from.

Addiction is a very selfish animal. It consumes the user and doesn’t allow them to clearly see what it’s doing to them and to the ones that love them. Heroin lies–it sucks the user in with good feelings and empty promises. It’s evil. It consumes and kills.

I can’t believe he’s gone. He was with us just the night before he died-we had such a good time together with our family and friends. He went home the next evening and was found dead just a few hours later. How can this happen. Why did this happen?

His death is the very first thought I have when I wake up and the last as I go to sleep. I see the pain on his parents’ faces and my heart hurts for them. I see the grief on the faces of my family and it tears at my heart. In my mind, I see him as a baby, a toddler, a sweet little boy, a funny kid who always made me laugh and a young man who had his whole life ahead of him. Until heroin. How do we do this for the rest of our lives? How does anyone lose someone so senselessly, so young, to a drug. It has changed everything.

He’s dead. Because of HEROIN.

Don’t let his death be for nothing.

If you are reading this and you are using heroin or any drug I am begging you to please PLEASE GET HELP. You deserve to be happy and healthy. You are not a horrible person, you are a good person who got drawn into something evil.

PLEASE go to rehab. Talk to your doctor or a friend, get someone to help you find a place to go for help. Get your life back, be happy!

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A case from Canada

On April 5, 2013, a 17 year old man overdosed at a apartment party in Elmira, Ontario after snorting crushed up hydromorphone, a prescription painkiller opiate up to 8 times more powerful than morphine.

From a news article:

At around 3:00 a.m. the next morning, the victim began to make strange breathing noises. By 6:00 a.m., he was running a fever.

They placed the victim in a cold bath and, when the teenager had cooled down, they laid him on the floor in the bathroom.

Someone at the apartment suggested calling for help, but it wasn't until after 11:00 a.m. that 911 was called.

The victim was then rushed to Grand River Hospital and placed on life support. He was later transferred to Hamilton General Hospital, but was pronounced dead on April 12, 2013.

From the family:

Hi Everyone. It's Thursday at 11:30 am. I hear it is a snow storm in Woolwich Township! First and foremost, if any of you reading this need help coping or just need someone to talk to, please, please speak with an adult that you trust. You need to talk and get support from others.

What does he love? He loves the outdoors, hanging with friends, being with his family, playing with his new dog and cat, laughing, joking, playing video games, spending endless hours on Facebook, and music music and more music.

The reality is that he is quickly approaching brain death. At this point, he has absolutely no ability to do any of the things he loves. he only has the most basic reflexes, which at this point is simply shallow breathing. He has an incredibly strong body and so the breathes keep coming - but he is not expected to last more than a couple more hours.

We have made a decision, based on what we believe he would want, and that is to donate his organs. His body has been prepared so that when the moment brain death occurs, his physical body will continue to function so that his valuable organs, including his kidneys, liver, pancreas, bowel, possibly his lungs and his heart, plus much more can be given to others, to give them life. its an incredible gift that I think he would not hesitate to do. I remember driving him home from a party in Conestoga back in the winter at about 2 am. we passed a boy on Sawmill Road (in the middle of no where) and he told me to pull over. I don't know who the boy was, but I believe he was in grade 9 at Elmira. Although the boy hesitated, he demanded he get in the car so we could drive him home (he was walking to Elmira). He simply looked at me and said, "Mom, that's what we do in the country. We help each other out." It was an extremely touching moment for me, that will stay with me forever.

He looks peaceful, rested and very comfortable. He feels no pain.

Stick together everyone. Look over those who may pull away or avoid contact. Again, talk to an adult and seek help if you need it. The school will have more resources for you tomorrow. Its a shame it is closed today. You guys are young and have a long life ahead of you. Make wise decisions - and like he said, look out for each other. I will be looking to you, his friends, to carry on his memory.

I thank you for all the support you have shown us through this extremely difficult time.

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A case from Canada

On March 21, 2017, a 22 year old man died as a result of a fentanyl overdose in British Columbia.

A Calgary mother is hoping a photo of her lying on a hospital bed with her dying son will help steer others away from using the deadly drug fentanyl.

The victim overdosed after he took a line of drugs in the bathroom of a Kelowna, B.C. corner market on March 14. He died on March 21 after he was taken off of life support.

In the photo uploaded on Facebook a week ago, the mother can be seen lying beside her son on his hospital bed as he is intubated and appears to be unconscious.

The mother told CTV Calgary on Tuesday that she decided to upload the photo of her son in the hospital to raise awareness about the spread of fentanyl in Canada.

She asked that Facebook users share the photo so that others could see the drug’s impact on families. By Tuesday morning, the mother’s photo had been shared more than 100,000 times.

The victim was given the drugs by a man he hardly knew, his mother said. After he overdosed, she said her son was left alone in the bathroom for 20 to 30 minutes before anyone found him. By that time, the victim had already gone into cardiac arrest because of the overdose.

Canada has the second highest per-capita number of opioid users in the world, behind the U.S.

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A case from Canada

On January 1, 2017, a 37 year old man died after overdosing on fentanyl at an apartment in Gastown, Vancouver, British Columbia.

His formative years were spent on the ice rinks and ball diamonds of Chilliwack in the early 1990s.

He was a young boy with charisma, big dreams and a winning smile. But all of that seemed to change when he was 17. His mom says that’s when he tried acid and experienced a “bad trip.”

He was never the same after that day, and suffered horribly, she says. What followed was two decades of struggling with mental health issues and drug use.

Then, on Dec. 27, 2016 at an apartment in the Gastown Hotel in Vancouver, fentanyl took his life —almost. Someone ran down to the front desk and he was revived about 10 minutes after overdosing. He was transported to the ICU at St. Paul’s Hospital and his mom stayed close by in the following days.

She brought in a photo of him from the time before his addiction, and placed it prominently beside his bed so the staff would see the boy with big dreams instead of the addict withering away in an induced coma.

He developed pneumonia in his hospital bed, and as they tried to bring him out of the coma the doctors found the damage was just too great.

And so, on Jan. 1, she had to say good-bye to her son a final time.

“You have your child who was overdosed on drugs, dead, revived, and you have to kill them again,” she says.

They found fentanyl, crystal meth and another non-opiate in his system.

“Heroin wasn’t his drug of choice,” she said. “There’s a big misconception in the news that fentanyl is an opiate or heroin user problem. There was no heroin in his system.”

Of course, there were times he didn’t use drugs at all.

She wants everyone to know that fentanyl can kill anyone, and that everyone who dies from fentanyl overdose had the potential to live a fulfilling life.

“I want people to feel like there’s a serial killer out there and lock their door,” she says.

“Because it’ll come to you no matter what.”

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Hands

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On April 6, 1999, a 24 year old man from Salt Lake City, Utah died as a result of a heroin overdose. He would have been 43 years old today.