Opioid Withdrawal and Overdose

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SPEAKER 1: Withdrawal for the individuals that are taking the heroin that's available now looks like extraordinary physical, muscular pain. And very few people can actually manage it.

SPEAKER 2: Well, you know how when your whole body hurts when you have the flu, and like just—it's like 15 times worse than that. Opiates, you're getting sick. I don't know who the [BLEEP] you think you are, if you think you're stronger than some [BLEEP] dope, because you're not.

I mean, your body's going to give in. Your mind's going to give in. Your [BLEEP] judgment's going to give in. You're going to [BLEEP] bow. And that's just [BLEEP] way it is. That's [BLEEP] way it is. That's [BLEEP] what's wrong is [BLEEP].

SPEAKER 3: You feel like you just want to die when you're going through that. At that point, you're willing to do anything to get that next high so you can just feel normal.

SPEAKER 4: I mean, I remember her in her room crying and just busting her room up, screaming at me, just get me a little. Just get me a little so I can stop. No. No.

SPEAKER 5: It feels like your skin's crawling, and you can't sit still. And you just—you'll do anything to make it stop.

SPEAKER 2: You can't move. You constantly sneeze. Your [BLEEP] whole body [BLEEP] aches. It [BLEEP] hurts. People are crapping on themselves. People are puking on themselves. People are doing both at the same time. You would probably rather be dead than have to actually go through a withdrawal.

KATRINA: It was horrific. I was sitting on the toilet, diarrhea, vomiting on the floor, so weak I couldn't even move. I just lay there. I didn't want to eat, drink, nothing.

SPEAKER 6: It's just something that I never, ever want to experience again. It is the worst feeling ever. And I wouldn't even—I wouldn't wish that feeling upon my worst enemy. That's how bad it is.

REBECCA WOOD: Every day I come to work knowing that somebody died. And more times than not, we have at least one prescription drug or other substance abuse case. Your friends, your family will find you dead. And then what happens? And then that is the image that they get stuck with for the rest of their lives.

SPEAKER 7: I've lost several friends to heroin and prescription pill overdose.

SPEAKER 3: I know two people on a personal level that had died from it.

SPEAKER 2: You know, one time my friend, she got out of here. She [BLEEP] got high. She wasn't even out six days. She was dead.

SPEAKER 5: One of my friends, she took her normal dose and OD'd. Her sister found her with a needle in her arm in her room, which was not good.

SPEAKER 7: The day that I overdosed, I was having a hard time finding a vein. And a girlfriend of mine said, well, just feel in your neck. You have your jugular vein. And I said, OK. It didn't let me push all the heroin in. And instantly, it killed me.

When the ambulance got there, they gave me a shot of Narcan. And I was non-responsive to the Narcan, which is adrenaline. And that's to jump start your heart. And it didn't work.

So they had to use the defibrillator. And that's where they shock your heart back. They got a pulse. They got me to the hospital. And I was still in and out of it.

But when I came to, I unhooked the IV from the pole and unhooked all these little things I had on me. And I went and walked right out and got in my van. And I showed up to the dope dealer with the gown on, these things stuck all over me, the IV in my arm.

And he sold me heroin, the same heroin that just killed me. I utilized the IV a couple of times before I turned it back in, because I have nowhere really to shoot. So that was a freebie.

KATRINA: So everything came to a head. I was writing the prescriptions and full on with my addiction. And I ended up getting caught and going to jail. And while I was in jail, my daughter got involved with some friends. From what I understand, her friends were all doing prescription pills. I had no idea. I didn't even know it was a problem. I just thought it was my problem.

And she said, mom, you don't have any right to talk. Look at you. Look where you are. I said, but Kirstyn, you saw where it put me. I can't imagine you would do the very same thing that I did. I'm like, how—It just didn't make sense.

KIRSTYN: My mom, I would go to the doctor's office every time with her. Well, I told her I'd go in for her. And usually it works, because she'll go in for me and ask for my prescriptions. And they give it to her. And so I went there and I asked.

And next thing you know, she got arrested. And she called me saying that I had a warrant for me. I said, why would you make me go in and do that, like to your own daughter, knowing that she can get caught and get in trouble. And she said that she was sorry because that she didn't realize how bad her addiction was.

SPEAKER 8: You need help, Kirstyn.

KATRINA: I talked to her. She didn't even say goodbye. She must have nodded off the phone, because I heard like a uh. And that was it. It was a Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon.

I was in the jail. And they came down and told me they needed to see me. And I went up. And because her father and I were both arrested for the same thing, we were both there. So I saw him coming.

The detectives came and told us what had happened, an apparent overdose, and that she was—initially, they said she'd passed. And then they said she was in ICU struggling for life.

They wanted me to talk to the doctor. And the doctor recommended I disconnect all life support. And I refused. And then they had seven resuscitation efforts, I guess. And eventually, that morning, she passed away. At her funeral, most all the kids were high.