"The last year before he died, we resuscitated him half a dozen times."
Jill and David Cory went through something no parent could imagine: losing a child to a fentanyl overdose.
Their son Ben had nine fentanyl overdoses in one year.
"You're not supposed to do CPR on your kid," David says in a new Telus Health documentary, titled Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis. "Not just once, but six times."
Ben passed away after going outside for a smoke late one night. His dad wasn't even aware he was home at the time.
We're pleased to release ''Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis'', a TELUS Health Originals documentary, to spark conversations about the opioid crisis, build better understanding and end the stigma of addiction. https://t.co/843new0b56 pic.twitter.com/kp90rf4WPI
— TELUS Health (@TELUSHealth) November 22, 2018
"I had a naloxone kit sitting right on the bedside table," he says in the film. "People think naloxone kits are the answer; well, you got to be right there with that naloxone kit, right at that moment when that person is having their last breath. Addiction is one of those diseases and you can have the best care in the world and you're still going to lose people."
Ben's story is just one of many across B.C. In Prince George, 30 people have died from an illicit drug overdose this year (January to September).
Provincially, to date, there have been 1,143 illicit drug overdose deaths.
Filmmaker Matthew Embry produced an incredible, but somber look into the ongoing opioid crisis in British Columbia. The documentary features other families who have suffered heartbreak from the epidemic as well as health-care workers, policy experts and law enforcement. Embry teamed up with Telus, which has been supporting activism for stories, such as this one, to help erase stigma of addiction through education.
The film aired in Prince George on Tuesday night (Nov. 28), only one of 10 other cities in Canada to have an exclusive screening.
"When it comes to hope, that's what we're trying to do, create that hope, " Embry told the crowd at the Prince George viewing. "That hope is by educating people about what addiction is and that educational process, that we start to see incremental change that each of us can be a part of, whether that's being more compassionate toward people (or) helping change the stigma of addiction."
He adds terminology around addiction needs to change.
"It's the terms that we use that can really help," he says. "In the media, I try to challenge the word 'junkie' so we don't use that word anymore, where the concept of people getting clean as though they were somehow dirty. So it's these little vocabulary things we can do to shift it (and reduce the stigma)," he says.
"This concept that people don't have enough will power or they have a choice, is really problematic," adds Embry. "I say to people who give me this argument: 'If someone is kicking your head, is it a choice for you to put a helmet on?' If you're in that much pain, emotional or physical, is it a choice that you're trying to stop that pain or is it self preservation? And I think people really need to think about it that way. These people who are struggling, they don't want it. They don't want to be struggling."
You can check out Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis below or catch it on Telus Optik TV on Demand. For each view, Telus will give $5 (up to $50,000) to organizations providing critical care to those in need through the Mobile Health Clinics, powered by Telus Health. Further, a $5,000 donation will be made to causes important to the three families featured in the film (a total of $15,000).
