Posted on 04/12/2005 8:41:57 AM PDT by Dubya
FORT WORTH - Justin Palmer said he didn't use drugs.
Each time his mother, Elayne Walters, asked him, the 19-year-old shook his head and said he knew better.
But Elayne was wise to what young people do these days, and she had dealt with her own drug and alcohol problems years before.
Occasionally, she used a drug testing kit to check Justin at their Berkeley neighborhood home. He never failed.
She told him time and time again: Don't do drugs.
Elayne thought her message was getting through.
On the night of March 12, Justin left home to play his guitar with his band at a friend's southwest Fort Worth home.
Elayne told him goodbye and went to bed.
The telephone awakened her at 7 a.m.
It was Justin's friend, shouting.
They had found Justin in his truck, and he wasn't breathing.
"Elayne!" he yelled. "He's ODing."
Elayne, confused and frightened, threw on some clothes.
Justin had lived with her since he was 14. She and his father had divorced when he was younger.
Because she had used drugs herself, she worried that Justin had inherited a vulnerability to addiction.
That's why she talked to him -- sometimes hounded him - about drugs. They will screw up your life, she told him.
Justin seemed to be doing OK.
He graduated from Arlington Heights High School in 2004. He was a good hockey player. He was taking classes at Tarrant County College and had earned B's and C's last year.
He liked to hunt and fish and was great to his little brothers, who called him Bubba.
So Elayne believed him.
Driving to Harris Methodist Southwest hospital the morning of the call, she grew angry.
She made a mental list: First, Justin was going to therapy. Then she'd take away his truck. And she'd stop giving him money; he'd have to earn it.
At the hospital, she was ushered into a dimly lit room. A Bible, a telephone and a telephone book sat on a table.
A chaplain walked in.
Her anger vanished, replaced by fear.
"No," Elayne said. "Don't tell me."
Justin was alive, barely.
Doctors said oxygen had stopped flowing to Justin's brain.
He was put on a ventilator in the intensive care unit.
A dangerous trend
Elayne wanted to know what her son had taken.
Eventually, his friends told her: After Justin left home, he had stopped and bought Oxycontin, a strong narcotic pain reliever similar to morphine, from someone.
Later, he took several Oxycontin and Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, and went to his truck.
His friends found him there in the morning.
It was not the first time Justin had taken prescription drugs, Elayne learned. He had experimented with Xanax and hydrocodone, another painkiller.
Friends said he had recently decided to try Oxycontin.
Elayne was stunned.
She had worried about drugs like speed or heroin, not prescription medications.
They were everywhere, his friends told her. You could buy them in the school hallways.
They probably were not exaggerating, drug prevention experts say. Abusing prescription medications is popular among young people.
It started a few years ago with Ritalin, a stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorder, said Amber Martin, an intervention specialist who works with area schools.
The drug of choice these days is Xanax, which goes for $2.50 a pill among teen-agers, she said. The painkiller Vicodin is also popular, selling for $3 to $10 a tablet.
Some teens don't know what they are taking. One student she counseled vomited on a school bus after taking a pill he was given.
Last week, two students at Eagle Academy of Fort Worth were hospitalized after taking anti-psychotic medication prescribed for the mother of another student.
And last year, a 14-year-old freshman at Fossil Ridge High School died after taking a lethal mix of prescription drugs.
Oxycontin, often prescribed for cancer patients, is the scariest of all, Martin said. Nicknamed "hillbilly heroin," its abuse has been increasing in recent years.
It is a time-release drug that is supposed to be taken only once every twelve hours, and can be lethal if taken in excess or mixed with other drugs.
Doctors told Elayne that the mixture of drugs that Justin had ingested damaged his respiratory system.
Scrapbook of memories
A month later, Justin Palmer remains in intensive care.
His father, Bill Palmer, sleeps in a reclining chair near his son's bed.
Bill, a maintenance supervisor for the Texas adjutant general, usually reserves his time off for his and Justin's annual hunting or fishing trips.
This year, his vacation time is spent at the hospital.
Friends have visited. So have former teachers and principals.
Some friends made a scrapbook for his parents. The photos show Justin at the prom, clowning with friends and fishing with his father.
Elayne and her husband, Mark Walters, spend hours there each day.
She divides her life between her time with Justin and caring for her younger sons, Cameron, 11, and Easton, 3. Easton tells her to make Bubba wake up.
There have been encouraging signs. Friday, doctors took Justin off his ventilator. He opens his eyes, although he doesn't seem aware or alert. His gaze is vacant.
"The progress is slow, but it's there," Bill said.
Because Justin is 19, with a strong heart and lungs, he may recover, doctors told Elayne. However, he appears to have suffered minor brain damage.
If he does wake up, he will need therapy and care.
Police say they are investigating where Justin got the drugs.
Elayne cries when she thinks about all her son has lost.
She wants young people to know that taking pills is as dangerous as sticking needles in their arms or snorting powder up their noses.
And she wants parents to keep talking to their kids.
She tried, but her son didn't talk to her truthfully, although he may have wanted to in the end.
Elayne looked at Justin's cellphone records from the night he overdosed. Justin had tried to call her at 11:39 p.m., but -- perhaps as he was fading from consciousness -- he had transposed the last two digits of her phone number.
Elayne believes that her son knew something was wrong and wanted her help.
By then, it was too late.
IN THE KNOW
Getting help
If you think you may have a problem with drugs, call the Narcotics Anonymous 24-hour help line at (817) 624-9525. Alex Branch, (817) 390-7689 abranch@star-telegram.com
Can't help those that don't want help.
Man, that's sad.
Reminds me a lot of my friend JB in Plano, TX who overdosed on heroin back in 97. As far as I know he's still in a wheelchair.
Sad story. Black market prescription drugs are a serious problem. Drugs like Xanax are so commonly prescribed that every third medicine cabinet has something like this in it.
Parents who take these medications need to lock them up securely to prevent the temptation for their kids to take them or sell them.
All these drugs have legitimate uses, but those who take them by prescription need to be careful that others don't have access to them.
What a sad story. Prayers for that family. I know those pain pills can get ahold of you, which is why I try to avoid them.
I thought the article was about some sort of mistake type deal. Like the article gave him X pill and told him to take it 10 times a day, but he was only supposed to take it once a day.
This is a sad story though. Had a couple of friends go down this road and its sort of hard to have sympathy for them. Hopefully they catch the "dealer" Shouldn't be too hard to find.
Story time.....I had to take Oxycontin for a neck problem 2 years ago. My idiot Dr. perscribed a very high dosage to start. It made me sick so I called the office to get a smaller dosage. The NURSE told me that if it was too strong to just CUT it in half. Luckily, I knew about Oxycontin and the problems when you cut a time release drug! I told her off and demanded to speak to the Dr. Then I told him about the nurse's advice. I wonder if she still works there? Danger, danger, danger.
STAR-TELEGRAM/RON JENKINS
Elayne Walters holds a scrapbook made by friends of her son Justin Palmer, 19. He has been in intensive care since overdosing on prescription drugs a month ago.
COURTESY OF ELAYNE WALTERS
Justin Palmer is in intensive care and appears to have suffered minor brain damage.
The NURSE told me that if it was too strong to just CUT it in half. Luckily, I knew about Oxycontin and the problems when you cut a time release drug!
_________________________________________________________
What happens?
Oxycontin and probably a beer or two. He's lucky that he's not dead.
BTTT
you get half as sick?
What problems are created when you cut Oxy in half?
Either you over formatted or this guy can't write in paragraphs!
/rant
The medication is coated so that it is released over a specified period of time. Cutting the drug in half disrupts the coating, and it's possible that you could get the full dosage at one time.
Really? you think?
I find this a little hard to believe. If she had her own problems with drugs, she should be well aware that prescription drug abuse is rampant. In addition, illegal drug users will go to prescription drugs when they can't get their drug of choice; there's nothing new about that. If she wanted to warn her kid about drugs, she would have done well to warn him against all of them, not just street drugs.
You never know what kids will do, and I can't blame her for the boy's actions, but having been around drug users myself, to say that she hadn't considered prescription drugs just doesn't ring true.
I see! Maybe that is what happened to this guy. He probably figured that one pill was too much and took a half instead.
There was a FReeper who posted last week that her father, a retired M.D., used to brag about all the teens who'd O.D.'d whom he had "allowed" to die in hospital.
The headline is severely misleading. Using the phrase "prescription drugs" implies that HE had a prescription. Without a valid prescription, oxycontin is an illicit drug.
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