Hospital Visit

Went to St. John's to visit a young woman who OD'd on heroin last night. She was still passed out. Or had passed into deep sleep again, as I gather she was briefly semi-lucid early this morning.

I went back later, hoping this time she'd be awake. No luck. The nurse looked at me darkly and asked if I was a boyfriend. Note her use of the word "a" instead of "the". I shuddered and held up my left hand said, "Just a family friend".

Well, true enough.

No, not her, I googled "young woman ICU" and it had this.
Good resemblance, though.

For years I've known her mom, who's also a heroin addict. I used to visit the mom in prison, and encourage her to take prison as a "head start" on being clean and sober and not to relapse when she got out.

She relapsed when she got out.

Both her daughters have been hooked on heroin. Bizarrely, the mother introduced it to each of them, why I still have no clue. I doubt she does either.

The one daughter finally got on methadone. I do not find that to be ideal, for a variety of reasons I've mentioned elsewhere, but I suppose it is better than a sharp needle in the vein.

Then there's the one I visited in the hospital, who still uses.

The mom had attempted to brag that she had been the one who went that "extra mile" in calling for the ambulance. As I pointed out to the older sister, it's a weird brag when a mom basically admits she was still doing drugs with her 20 something daughter.

Not that the mother hung around for the ambulance. But as she put it, "I left her at Jamal's (a liquor/convenience store), there's always people there." True enough. There are. But not exactly the types I'd want to leave a comatose daughter with.

I've learned over the years that trying to get anyone off of drugs is a years long process. And one that you can't do for them, you can only try and encourage them to do it. Then if you happen to be present when they decide to succeed, you can kid yourself that you did something. *rueful chuckle*

And if you happen to be there when they OD or die, then you can feel like you failed them.