A reporter on the heroin beat looks back at how far we've come in confronting the opioid epidemic.
Even when they were in recovery from addiction, they were afraid to tell their stories.
Many simply could not believe it was happening here. A young man overdosed in his girlfriend's bedroom in a lavish home in Boone County and when paramedics rang the doorbell, the adults there were dumbfounded. Overdose here? No.The beginning is what it felt like, even though one dead young man's mom in Northern Kentucky had been crying out for help for more than a decade already. First, for her son. Then, for others' sons and daughters.
I remember talking to the cops, because this was before health departments were involved in what was clearly a public health disaster. The cops threw up their hands. Nicholas Specht stopped breathing at 30 years old in August 2013 behind a bathroom door at his parents' Fort Thomas home. He'd overdosed. And when the police arrived, they couldn't help. They had nothing to revive him. Neither did his parents.I remember that, too. How does this opioid overdose antidote work? How do you pronounce that? How do you even spell it?
Twice a year, and more randomly in between, I see Facebook posts from a mother I met in 2015, sobbing and shaking seven months after her 22-year-old son died from a heroin overdose. Then-health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen had blanketed the prescription of naloxone to all 620,000 Baltimore residents.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Far from U.S. epidemic, ‘the other opioid crisis’ rages in vulnerable countries'`Safer opioid’ has sparked a crisis in vulnerable countries
Read more »
Caring for the youngest victims of the opioid crisis
Read more »
Purdue Pharma’s foreign affiliate now selling overdose cureThe gleaming white booth towered over the medical conference in Italy in October, advertising a new brand of antidote for opioid overdoses. “Be prepared. Get naloxone. Save a life,” the slogan on...
Read more »
Doctors Helped Create the Opioid Epidemic. Now They Have to Fix It'When Dr. Laura Fanucchi first started working in hospitals, she was struck by how many people were dependent on opioids. Now, she treats patients in one of the states hit hardest by the crisis.'
Read more »
Doctors Helped Create the Opioid Epidemic. Now They Have to Fix It'When Dr. Laura Fanucchi first started working in hospitals, she was struck by how many people were dependent on opioids. Now, she treats patients in one of the states hit hardest by the crisis.'
Read more »