A 19-year-old faculty freshman from New York died of a fentanyl overdose after taking only one tablet she believed to be Percocet, in line with her grieving household.
Paige Gibbons, of Pittsford, was attending Hobart and William Smith Schools with goals of turning into a health care provider when she and a pal popped what they had been instructed was a Percocet tablet in Nov. 2022.
“She was at a pal’s home, the dad and mom had been dwelling, she and her pal had been going to take a Percocet, which she thought was a Percocet,” Paige’s father, David Gibbons mentioned in an interview with New York’s Workplace of Dependancy Providers and Helps (OASAS).
“Unbeknownst to them, it was not a Percocet — it was 100% fentanyl,” he mentioned.
Hours later, a police officer knocked on the Gibbons’ entrance door and instructed them that their daughter died of an overdose.
“It was the loudest yell I’d heard in my life,” David recalled of his spouse’s response to the information. “I believed it was an intruder or one thing, as a result of why was she screaming?”
Paige was with two mates when she took the tablet, which one among them had bought through social media. One pal additionally practically died whereas the opposite in the end determined to not take it.
“She trusted, possibly, her pal or her pal trusted any person that they knew,” Paige’s mom, Kate, mentioned. “We simply considered her as just a little naive in that respect. Sadly, it price her her life.”
Paige’s dad and mom mentioned their daughter was not a frequent drug abuser, which they confirmed along with her mates.
“One mistake was clearly Paige’s worst mistake in her entire life,” David mentioned. “We don’t need her to be judged for the worst mistake she made.”
Paige, who graduated from Our Woman of Mercy Excessive Faculty in Rochester, had deliberate to develop into a health care provider.
Now, 18 months after her demise, her household is sharing their very own horror story within the hopes that they will save others from the identical destiny.
Paige’s story will probably be one among a number of airing in an OASAS academic movie titled “Dependancy: The Subsequent Step” exploring the Empire State’s rampant fentanyl epidemic.
“I can’t imagine that we nonetheless hear folks, you recognize, having this similar precise scenario,” Kate mentioned. “I need to shout it from the mountaintops and be sure that everybody is aware of: Anticipate that it’ll occur to you; count on that you’ll die in case you do this.”
“It doesn’t discriminate,” David added. “Socioeconomically, race, faith. You are taking a tablet, and you’ve got a possible of dying that evening.”
Some 6,300 New Yorkers died of fentanyl overdoses in 2023, and 74,702 died nationally, in line with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
The opioid will be deadly even in hint quantities, and is 50 occasions extra highly effective than heroin.
The Drug Enforcement Company set a report in 2023 seizing 79.5 million fentanyl capsules — greater than 20 million extra capsules than the overall quantity seized in 2022.
Laboratory testing indicated that seven out of each 10 capsules seized by the company contained a deadly dose of fentanyl, the DEA mentioned, and it’s not restricted simply to opioids.
The company mentioned that top faculty and faculty college students trying to buy “research medicine” like Adderall on-line have additionally been uncovered to fentanyl, Fox Information reported.
Whereas fewer teenagers than ever are abusing medicine, teen overdoses are on the rise as a result of lethal results of fentanyl, mentioned Dr. Chinazo Cunningham, the coordinator of OASAS.
“We all know with the web and social media that children can get what they assume are actual capsules, however who is aware of the place they’re made or the place they’re coming from and what’s in them?” she mentioned. “Fentanyl is discovering its means into these capsules and that may be lethal.”
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