[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 1, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E122-E124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING FAMILIES IMPACTED BY THE NATIONAL OPIOID EPIDEMIC
_____
HON. ANN M. KUSTER
of new hampshire
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Ms. KUSTER of New Hampshire. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to include in
the Record the personal stories of families from across the country
that have been impacted by the opioid and heroin epidemic. In the U.S.
we lose 129 lives per day to opioid and heroin overdose. In my home
state of New Hampshire I have learned so many heartbreaking stories of
great people and families who have suffered from the effects of
substance use disorder.
Earlier this year, my colleagues and I were joined by many of these
courageous families who came to Washington to share their stories
[[Page E123]]
with Members of Congress and push for action that will prevent
overdoses and save lives. Since then, we passed both the Comprehensive
Addiction and Recovery Act and the 21st Century Cures Act to provide
much needed funding and critical policy changes to fight this epidemic.
The advocacy of these families truly is so important to leading
change in Washington and I am proud to preserve their stories.
Victor Benjamin Surma--Bridgeville, Pennsylvania
Victor Benjamin Surma was born July 20, 1983. He died on
January 26, 2014 from a heroin overdose. Victor was an
excellent athlete. At the age of 15 he fractured his spine
playing football. The orthopedic surgeon prescribed
oxycodone. Prior to being prescribed a narcotic, Victor did
not drink or use drugs. Victor was a fly fisherman,
outdoorsman, excellent mogul skier. He was a good student and
he had a bright future. Victor played football at a Division
I college. His third year, he quit the team.
Victor struggled with substance abuse. His parents were
unaware that prescription drugs would be highly addictive
because of the history of drug and alcohol abuse in both of
their families. Education and prevention, especially for
families with genetic predisposition to abuse is essential
knowledge, beginning at the earliest age for children.
Victor had a dual major in college in business and
communications. He was a successful campaign model during and
after college, and an orthopedic sales representative for
Smith and Nephew. Victor was awarded ``Rookie'' of the year
in sales nationwide. To maintain his ability to work, Victor
would drive an hour after a 10 hour day of working in the
hospital to find a doctor who would give him suboxone. The
effort to obtain suboxone daily exhausted Victor physically
and mentally. He could only work with the daily dose of
suboxone, but could not function without having a doctor
closer to his home. No one could.
Victor could not stop using prescription drugs. He fought
like a soldier to stop the urges to use drugs. Victor also
was uninformed in thinking he was weak and was shamed because
of his drug habit.
Victor went to Caron Rehab, Gateway Rehab, Wonderland
Rehab, two rehab facilities in Florida, Mountainside Rehab,
and the last rehab was associated with Harvard Medical
Center. Admittance to emergency room care when he voluntarily
required life saving intervention was denied. His parents
accompanied Victor to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. The blood test indicated so many drugs in
Victor's system that he qualified for admittance. However,
there were not enough beds. They left not knowing what to do
and Victor continued using.
Victor got two DUI's and lost his license for two years
within a week of being denied admittance to Mercy Hospital.
He lost his lucrative job, all his accumulated money in bank
accounts, his two cars, and became so desperate and ashamed
he went into a downward spiral. Isolation from friends,
family, and society was heart-wrenching.
Once his source of income was depleted, Victor started
using heroin. At this point he qualified for methadone. His
parents would drive Victor to the methadone clinic, and it
was at the clinic where he made the acquaintance of a drug
dealer. Victor was aware of the seriousness of drug dealing
and would not participate. However, Victor had fallen so low
that his parents paid a huge amount of money for him to go to
a Harvard affiliated drug program.
Victor was clean for 6 months prior to his overdose. He
humbled himself to work in retail, walk to work, and his
parents were his only social life. At the Harvard affiliated
rehab, Victor obtained a sponsor and the doctor advised
Victor's parents to support his move to an apartment in New
York City.
When Victor died, he was alone. The autopsy indicated a
small amount of heroin and cocaine, but because he had not
been using for 6 months it hit him like a freight train. The
NYPD discovered his sponsor was a drug dealer from Long
Island, NY. The phone records indicate the sponsor called
Victor at 3 a.m. the morning of his overdose.
After his death, the community did not know what to say to
his family. It was horrible for them not to have support even
in light of Victor's death. Addiction was perceived as a
weakness, poor parenting, not as a disease.
Victor's parents hope is to give support to other parents
and families who are isolated and have a loved one suffering
from substance abuse disorder. Insurance companies must step
up and cover treatment. Treatment needs to be more than 28
days. If Victor's parents had known that he may have had a
chance to live with this disease with the help of extended
rehab, they would have done anything possible to facilitate
Victor's recovery. His family looks at Victor's death as a
wasted, tragic loss of a loving, intelligent, compassionate,
and vital person for this world.
Victor's family misses him every second of every day.
Losing a child to drug overdose is another stab in their
hearts as support and compassion recognizing addiction as a
disease is nil. Only through legislation, education and
insurance participation can we as a society stop this fatal
disease.
Kelsey Suzanne Vaudreuil--Wellington, Florida
Kelsey Suzanne was born August 25, 1991, in West Palm
Beach, Florida, but lived most of her life in her hometown of
Wellington. Growing up, Kelsey was a sweet, soft spoken child
who made friends easily. She had two brothers, Korey and
Austin, whom she loved with all of her heart. In Kelsey's
pre-teen years she loved the baton and was very involved with
a discipleship group from church, which strengthened her
faith and wisdom in God.
At age 16, Kelsey began working at a small town movie
theatre in Wellington--sadly, that is where her opiate use
began. From there on, Kelsey then graduated from smoking
opiates to using heroin. For seven years, off and on, Kelsey
was in and out of detox clinics, treatment centers,
residential facilities, hospitals, and halfway houses.
Kelsey's mother was her biggest cheerleader; she loved,
encouraged, and begged her to stop using and to try again. No
matter how Kelsey felt her mother kept pushing her with God's
love and her own.
There was probably around seven or eight times her mother
allowed Kelsey to live at home, but only if she promised
she'd stay clean and not use. This privilege would end if she
used drugs. Sadly, after a short stint at home, Kelsey
started using again. Her mother unfortunately had to ask her
to leave--how that killed her to have her child leave without
knowing where or who she would go to but the boundaries had
to be put in place.
Kelsey had lost her father in March of 2011, which broke
both her and her brothers' hearts. Kelsey's mother believe
this intensified her drug use. Even though Kelsey said she
was okay, she always had that big beautiful smile of hers
that covered so much pain. Kelsey also miscarried her son,
Mason, at four months along. This was devastating for her;
the shame and guilt she carried was overwhelming.
In 2012, Kelsey was almost a year sober and living in an
all-girls halfway house. There she built strong sober
relationships and learned to manage her life and her
addictions. She was working a full time job at a cafe, which
she really enjoyed and the customers loved her. Her mother
was so very proud and happy for her. Kelsey later left the
halfway house and moved into an apartment with a friend, only
to end three short months later after relapsing.
On December 17, 2014, at 6:10 a.m., Kelsey's mother
received a knock on my door from a policeman, who handed her
a small piece of paper and told her to call the Lantana
Police Department. She truly thought to herself, ``Oh, Kelsey
must have gotten into trouble.'' The detective on the other
end of the phone said, ``Ma'am I'm sorry to tell you your
daughter, Kelsey Suzanne Vaudreuil is deceased.'' Kelsey
passed away in a motel room--how that broke her mother's
heart. She'll never know what truly happened that night, but
the autopsy report said it was a multiple intoxication,
accidental overdose. Kelsey's little frame just couldn't
handle anymore poison but in God's great Mercy, he took her
home at 2:50 a.m. in that small motel room.
``Drug use has plagued my family for years,'' writes
Kelsey's mother. ``Kelsey's passing has changed mine, my
family's, and friend's lives forever. It's a loss that I can
never truly find the right words to express other than to say
it's a void in my heart that cannot be filled.''
``Addiction is a horrible disease and drugs don't care
anything about you. If you are in active drug use, please
reach out! Don't isolate yourself; there's no shame.
Remember, YOU ARE LOVED!''
Justin Wolfe--Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Justin was intelligent, kind, thoughtful, loving, caring
and loved life to the fullest. However, Justin's story is
similar to most who have an addiction, and that is he began
drinking at 15 and eventually moved on to other substances,
which was learned while he was in college. Justin in his
younger years played soccer, ice hockey, street hockey,
lacrosse and did karate. He attended Drexel and Syracuse
Universities, respectively, but mid-year was dismissed from
each due to aberrant behavior. Justin saw therapists as a
result of his aberrant behavior and drinking since he was 15
years old. However, they thought it was his anxiety, OCD and
behavior, not realizing he had a hidden addiction. His dream
was to complete college and become a successful businessman.
However, the punishments, reprimands and good parenting did
not halt Justin's behavior of what we later learned was a
deep seated addiction.
In April of 2012, Justin approached his mother and admitted
that he was addicted to Percocet and Oxycontin. She took him
to their family physician and during the appointment, Justin
asked the doctor not to tell me about his issues, claiming
that the news would ``kill me.'' The physician told his
mother to take Justin to a crisis center immediately for
treatment, but Justin convinced her, without the doctor's
knowledge, to take him to a suboxone doctor that he had found
instead.
Two months later his father was finally informed, against
Justin's wishes, about his addiction to Percocets. He
demanded that Justin go to an inpatient rehab but he said as
a 21 year old he could make his own decision; he didn't want
to go to an inpatient facility for fear of being exposed to
more dangerous drugs, such as heroin and crack cocaine.
Unbeknownst to us, he had been using heroin for quite some
time at that point. Eventually, he agreed to participate in
an outpatient treatment program for the summer and began
weekly psychiatric visits.
[[Page E124]]
While he was in the program Justin's father contacted the
intake director to inquire about his progress. He was
informed that they could not disclose any information under
HIPAA regulations. The following September Justin attended
Temple University as a sophomore and joined a wonderful
fraternity AEPI. He continued to see a psychiatrist and
things seemed to be going well, which made his passing on
December 19th, 2012, all the more shocking to his family.
Justin's father explained Justin's history of substance
abuse to the psychiatrist who tried to counsel him and
monitor his prescriptions for depression, anxiety, and OCD.
After Justin passed away his father learned that he hadn't
disclosed his heroin addiction--except to say that he had
tried it once.
Throughout Justin's time in college, he made friends who
had also been in and out rehab, including one boy who was
attending pharmacy school, a local judge's son who worked for
a Governor, and an attorney's son. These examples demonstrate
how addiction is indiscriminate--its devastation reaches all
ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. When his family
found out that Justin had passed away from an overdose of
heroin, the entire family was shocked. Only upon further
investigation did his father learn that heroin is rampant in
our communities--killing our children and destroying the
lives of their families.
``We, as a society, need to advance education in schools at
every grade level regarding the dangers of abusing opiates
and the slim recovery rates of those who become addicted,''
writes Justin's father.
``It seems as though no one speaks about their family's
struggle with addiction due to embarrassment or shame.
However, within two months of my son's death, I spoke to well
over 25 parents who came forward with stories similar to
mine--several stints of rehab-- only to lose their child to
an overdose. Many families I have spoken to could no longer
afford the high costs of treatment; their insurance would
only cover a limited period of rehabilitation.''
Justin was not violent and would never intentionally hurt a
soul, but his addiction hurt and endangered the lives of
those close to him, including his younger brother. I thank
God that Justin never hurt anyone on the road. I have
pictures of his apartment that demonstrate how he was living
at college; there were cigarette burns on his bedding from
all of the times he nodded out.
No one could save Justin--not his family, friends, nor
Justin himself, but it is his father's hope that with much
needed change, Justin's tragedy and his advocacy can help to
save millions of young lives. Since Justin's passing, his
father has spoken to close to a thousand parents and children
regarding opiate and heroin abuse in order to bring
awareness, education and prevention amongst our communities.
If there is one pertinent fact that he can bring to the
forefront, that is for every parent to have a Power of
Attorney, a Medical Directive for their 18 year old so they
are made aware of their symptoms, medical condition and are
apprised of every step throughout their young adult's care.
Bradley Michael Zulick--Butler, Pennsylvania
Bradley Michael Zulick was born August 21, 1986, in Butler,
Pennsylvania. As a child, he always made his family laugh and
brought joy and laughter to everyone lucky enough to know
him. His friends and family describe him as funny,
thoughtful, and a polite young man. He was loving, kind-
hearted and was a spirit lifter, with a contagious
personality and smile. Brad was also a fantastic athlete, a
great friend, and everyone's best friend. He was truly one of
a kind. Brad loved everyone, and everyone loved him. His
family meant the world to him. Brad also enjoyed spending
time with his friends' children.
Throughout Brad's short life, one of his biggest interests
was sports--whether he was participating or simply watching,
he was always engaged. In high school, he excelled at
football, basketball, and track, and also enjoyed playing
golf. Even when he was older he still participated in small-
sided football games, church basketball leagues, dek hockey,
and baseball games. No one knew more about sports than Brad,
which helped him to become an outstanding sports trivia
player.
Every year Brad played in the Lyndora Turkey Bowl, a
neighborhood football game held on Thanksgiving Day, where
the younger guys played against the older generation. Brad
enjoyed these games so much. He also was a passionate
supporter of Pitt Panther football and regularly attended
games with his dad, sister, cousins, and friends. Pitt games
are precious memories of times spent with Brad.
Brad loved music; going to concerts with his close friends
was what he looked forward to more than anything. In school,
history was Brad's favorite subject. He studied history at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania and went on to receive his
associate's degree from Butler County Community College on
May 19, 2009. We were all so proud of him for this
accomplishment. It seemed Brad's life would be everything he
dreamed it could be. We all were so hopeful that he would
have a bright future.
However, around the time Brad graduated from college, he
became addicted to prescription pills. ``I knew there was a
problem,'' writes his mother. ``But because I was naive, I
didn't know exactly what was wrong. Brad was becoming moody
and depressed--the total opposite of the laid-back young man
he always was in the past.''
In January of 2014, Brad admitted his addiction to
prescription pills and asked for help. It was believed he was
using heroin at that time, but he didn't admit it. His
mother's heart broke as she watched Brad sobbing because of
the shame and guilt he felt from his addiction. He told her
he was lost. His family tried so hard to help him. Brad went
into treatment three times. He always believed he could
overcome his struggles with addiction but his mother never
truly understood how hard it really was for him.
The saddest day of her life was March 17, 2016--the day
Brad lost his battle with addiction. He passed away from an
overdose of heroin laced with Fentanyl. Brad's parents lost
their baby, their only son that day. Their daughter, Kelly,
lost her only sibling and best friend. They all are
struggling with the grief of such a huge loss.
____________________