In child's hospital room, a mom is dead, dad ODs

[trillion]

Source: USA Today

CINCINNATI — Police arrived at an Ohio hospital Thursday to find a mother dead and a father unresponsive from a heroin overdose on the floor of their 7-month-old child's hospital room bathroom.

The parents had traveled from Alabama to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center to seek treatment for their child.

The mother, identified Friday by the Hamilton County Coroner's Office as Mary Landers, 31, of Trinity, Ala., was found dead from an apparent overdose at


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/08/child-hospital-room-parents-heroin/78500942/

---

Another state of the union update.

[TygrBright]

3. Her parents suffered from a disease.

I suffer from a disease, too.

Does that make me "screwed up?" Should I "go away" from my child's life?

I damn' near did, when she was much younger.

But I've been in recovery for a good many years, and love being a grandparent.

I still have my disease, I struggle with it every day.

But I guess I should give up, and go away, huh?

wearily,

Bright

[Stuckinthebush]

5. This ^^^^

I work in addiction recovery. Never do we say our clients are screw ups.

Heroin is nasty stuff and the addiction is horrendous. I hope for this father that this tragedy will allow him to get the help he needs so he can be a wonderful father for that child.

Best of luck in your recovery. Educate the uniformed and keep your head up.

[polly7]

6. +1000. And I'm sorry, TygrBright.

That poor child .............. and RIP to the mother. Addiction (obviously) is a horrendous disease.

[Raster]

7. Bless your heart, Tygr.

It's so easy for some to posture and pontificate when they're on the outside looking in... especially if they don't have the faintest fucking idea what they're talking about.

[jonno99]

9. You're not alone in your suffering - I've been their too. The question is really

one of responsibility.

I would argue that if someone is responsible for the care of a 7 month old and they are not able control their habit, then for the sake of the child, they should be screaming for help, and seriously consider giving custody over to someone else.

The child in this story is lucky there were other adults in attendance...

[LuckyLib]

13. You can argue responsibility all you want, but the issue with illnesses -- physical

addiction, chemical dependency, mental illness like schizophrenia, is precisely that you can't always make good decisions and be responsible because your brain function is altered. The illness itself can affect the ability to take responsibility.

[jonno99]

14. I totally agree with you - which is all the more reason to argue for responsibility,

especially if one is supposedly a caretaker of small children.

What would "responsibility" look like? If someone just comes to, and realizes that they can't remember that for the previous x number of hours they have no clue what they were doing, and don't even know if they fed the baby - IN THAT MOMENT OF CLARITY - they better be on the phone asking SOMEONE for help.

IMHO, the failure to do otherwise approaches criminal neglect...

[trillion]

17. Most addicts aren't mentally ill. The drugs make them act mentally ill, and in the case of

todays drugs like meth, they degrade the mental functioning even after the one out of 100 kicks the habit.

The problem is these drugs are super addictive. When these people want to get off them their body wont let them because they go into a strong withdrawal and the withdrawal can kill them if they suddenly went cold turkey. They need state help to get over the current addictions. What I'm saying is, their choice has been taken away after they're addicted. It's also hard to get help when they're homeless and social services are overwhelmed.

Okay, I see now you weren't writing they were simply mentally ill.

[Duppers]

12. Recently lost a friend to an accidental overdose.

It wasn't a very close friendship so I didn't know about his addiction. We had known him for at least ten years. He was one of the NICEST, hardworking, caring guys I've ever known. He always greeted my hubs and myself with a warm hugs, sat with us over food and shared stories of our lives. He was not "screwed up" either. Had his problems yes and was dealing with these in not the best way but that did not make him a bad person.

People are far too quick to condemn other people they don't know.


Had to fight tears while typing this.

[Stuart G]

16. You are an inspiration to all of us..

Don't give up. I didn't give up and I recovered too. We move on, and we gain strength and hope from each other.

[midnight]

23. I also agree with your understanding of this situation. Thank you for speaking up. It is so

discouraging when people don't get the health care they deserve. We need to keep working on this so those parents that need health care can get it without all the horrible judgement that goes on. I think Paul Wellstone was able to bring a strong message for those with mental illness being treated with the same dignity as those with a broken arm or other medical condition.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Sad

[LeftyMom]

4. Travel is a pretty frequent factor in heroin overdoses.

The potency varies pretty widely from region to region, so what appears to be a maintenance dose in one area can be a dangerous overdose in a different area with a different supply.

That's one of the many reasons shifting opiate abusers from prescriptions to street drugs is shortsighted if not outright malicious.

[Kaleva]

21. Most of the addicts I know got their start on prescription drugs

Last year, a family member stayed over for a few days. One night, I got the box where I keep the dog's meds and noticed that the Tramadol was almost gone and I as sure I just had that script filled by the vet. The next day I called the vet, told him about the shortage and he informed me that tramadol was a drug often abused by addicts.

[jtuck004]

8. If it was legal they wouldn't have to worry about getting garbage. So proud of the fascists that

keep things this way.

Maybe they could go to the funeral and tell the kid how proud they are that they have helped to orphan another.

[trillion]

10. This is an epidemic and it is intentional.

We can thank a lot of people for it including big pharma and the US South American war on drug, since the 1970'. We can also thank the gov for spending billions a day on Iraq but not one billion on treatment for US addicts.

I have a niece who is homeless right now(okay I have two of them both from drugs) but this 35 yo one just went homeless. It took a few years to get there but it started when she sprained her wrist at her job at Costco and her doctor prescribed addictive pain meds. She never went off them. She had it all together before that. She was a married mother of son she was actively raising and was buying a house in the suburbs. Now she has lost everything. After her doctor got busted and she got caught shopping for another doctor to give her the meds, she turned to street drugs - Heroin. This is in Seattle and its so common that her husband also ended up addicted - living in the same house but separately over literally getting chrones disease and being in pain. They both lost their house and their kid and each other. How common is it? 4 out of my 5 niece and nephews have been addicts now and none of their parents ever were. They grew up in different houses. We have family get togethers and try to make sense of how the heck this happened. My good friend explained it to me well. He tried meth 1 time and was ready to give up his job and his apartment to just do it. His friends did just that but it scared him so bad he never tried it a 2nd time. As far as Heroin, the stuff today is not the heroin pre 1977 -It has a chemical taste to it - so I'm told that it didn't have that taste before 1977 and people noticed it. I'm also told that it is far more addictive today because of the chemicals added to it. In 1970 only 3% of heroin users would get so addicted they lost everything and became homeless. I don't know what it is today but judging by my family, I'd say at least 70%.

[midnight]

24. I know my grandfather used to drink coke when it had real cocaine in it.

I don't know if the intention was to get drinkers addicted to cocaine or not, but it did happen.

[valerief]

11. Well, that's why we WARRED in Afghanistan, for all that heroin to serve a dual purpose--

enrich war profiteers and enrich drug dealers. Oh, yeah, and to cull the herd. The oligarchs love that.

[Stuart G]

15. Addictions suck, and they kill ....some people don't want to admit they are addicts..

As these words are written people are facing death from addictions people do not admit. Oh, that cannot be..You know if you are.
Nope..I studied this and experienced this...What about food, sugar, salt, and food fat, (like in cheese) addiction?..You know someone who cannot stop eating a food that is hurting him/her?..Making their illness worse, and raising their blood pressure. Why do they continue?..can't stop eating it.

you are bullshitting us...not really.

The U.S. has the most obese people of any nation in the world. And the huge majority of those people would never, never repeat never admit they are addicts. On this discussion board there are those who fit this description. No names, but this is true. People gain and loose weight like the addicts who cannot stop the drugs. It is just one of the additions ..here is a list for us to consider;

1. booze
2. hard drugs, like heroine, cocaine, meth..etc
3. prescription drug addiction ..as described in an earlier post in this discussion
4. food, (salt, sugar, fat; and combos those three)..110 million obese in the United States.
5. gambling
6. sex addicts
7. computers..(sitting to long at one place ain't so good for you)
8. tobacco... smoking, and chewing
9. caffeine


and.........we don't screw up if we are one of them,,,,,,,we just got to deal with it every day and forever...It ain't easy, but many succeed and lead decent and uplifting lives. And people beat these addictions. Just don't give up and read as much as you can..and if you desire, find people who also have these addictions and work together to overcome them........thanks for reading this

[sarge43]

18. Need to add tobacco to your list

It's as dangerous and addictive as anything on that list.

[Mosby]

19. You forgot tobacco.

[Stuart G]

20. I apologize and it has been added as well as caffeine... thank you very much

[liberalhistorian]

26. I think the fear of admitting to an addiction

comes from two major factors. First, denial is very powerful and often very hard to resist even when people intellectually know better (which is most of the time). This is true for most negative things, of course, not just addictions, but it is especially powerful in regards to admitting any kind of addiction.

Second, the criminalization of substance abuse addictions and the legitimate fear of the very real possibilities of legal and financial, as well as social and cultural, consequences, makes it doubly difficult to admit such an addiction. We are the only developed nation that has such a punitive attitude toward such addictions and that uses the criminal justice system and jail to deal with it. And nowhere is our justice system's double standard in terms of race and class more evident than in the treatment of addicts. Those of the right color and/or class are usually given the "punishment" of a nice, cushy vacation in a plush, fancy, club med "rehab" facility that often costs more for one month than the average American family earns in an entire year, and an expungement of their record if they "successfully" complete it. Those who are not the right color and/or class, well....we know how that will end.

As for other non-criminalized addictions (food, tobacco, etc.), there are still plenty of economic, social and cultural consequences that make the admission of such addictions quite unpleasant. Sad and frustrating, of course, but that's the way it unfortunately is at this time.

[Botany]

22. Heroin is one wicked drug .....

.... my son's high school girl friend is still trying to fight smack and here in
Columbus, OH for the past few years the number of old needles I have found
in and around the area is staggering and some have been in upper middle class
neighborhoods.

I can just see it ... They get their child into a hospital and think they can now get
high and relax and then they get a "hot shot."

I have a friend who is an ER doc and heroin ODs are too damn common.

[mike_c]

25. this is a tragedy that could have been prevented...

...by a rational approach to addiction management. We need to start from the understanding that some people will choose addiction. Their reasons for it might be complicated, but they're ultimately irrelevant. A rational response simply acknowledges that addiction happens. The problem then becomes one of risk management for those who become addicted. As pointed out above, uncertain supply is associated with accidental overdose. It seems to me that the rational response is to provide addicts access to standardized doses of known potency. Don't some countries already take this approach?