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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 27, 2015)
NOVEMBER 27, 2015, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9 GIFT, continued from Page A1 “It was disastrous,” Eliza- beth said. “Bottles and weed were everywhere. Her dad kicked her out and called me. Her Facebook page was on the computer and it was open to messages about getting heroin. She had shot up on heroin. That was the night she almost died.” Samantha had gone to a house with other users, shot up and passed out. When she stopped breathing, no one knew what to do. “The next day, I found her on River Road, walking with a friend,” Elizabeth said, not- ing Samantha believes her best friend and grandpa saved her. “I drove past her. She was so bloated and dirty, I didn’t rec- ognize her at fi rst. I fl ipped a u-turn and stopped. They were both high on heroin. I asked her to get in my car. Once she did, after she looked at me like a zombie, I told her I knew everything and I would do anything to get her help. She asked, ‘Why? Why do you care?’ If she only could have understood.” Elizabeth got her daughter a sandwich and made her take a shower before taking her to the emergency room. “I was terrifi ed,” Elizabeth said. “I had no idea what her- oin does or possible reactions. When I brought her home, my husband and my other daugh- ter Erica just sat there. No one really knew what to do or say to someone who was clearly high and out of her mind. You sure don’t read that in a parent- ing book.” Things only got worse from there. “She yelled at Erica,” Eliza- beth recalled. “Erica went into her room and cried. Erica was 16 at the time and didn’t un- derstand why Sam was mak- ing these choices. Sam was all strung out, but she felt bad about she’d done to her sister. Erica told her, ‘You’ve always been my hero and promised you would be there for me. You’re breaking my heart and killing yourself.’” That ended up being Sa- mantha’s turning point. Break- ing her sister’s heart was the worst feeling in the world for her, so Samantha agreed to get help. Elizabeth took Samantha to the ER, then brought her home and stayed with her for three days and nights as her daughter went through severe withdrawals from heroin. “Watching someone with- drawal off of heroin is awful,” Elizabeth said. “She couldn’t even walk to the bathroom. I had to help her to the bath- room. She couldn’t keep food down. I shut down into emer- gency crisis mode.” As if seeing her daughter nearly die of a heroin overdose wasn’t bad enough, the next step was just as tough in a dif- ferent way: trying to fi nd a way “You have to empower to help Samantha. your loved one to believe in “The hardest part is fi nding themselves and to fi ght for help,” Elizabeth said. “There their sobriety,” Elizabeth said. was not a list of names or a “If not, you’re crippling them.” website with names out there. In another example, Jim had I never imagined I would fi nd a parent sit in a chair while he myself in this world.” portrayed an addict struggling Elizabeth found out about to cross the room to sobriety. Hazelden Treatment Center in The parent wasn’t able to get Newberg, with her mom pay- out of the chair to help, mean- ing the co-pay to get Samantha ing Jim had to fi ght to get in. Three weeks later Samantha himself across the room. was kicked out, with the rec- “A lot of parents were angry ommendation when we got to check out down there,” Balboa Hori- Elizabeth said. zons in South- “Erica and I ern California, were. We did a 90-day rehab an emotional program. In- check-in every surance picked day. Through- up the bill and out the week, Samantha was the anger was on her road to lessened be- recovery. cause you start While Sa- to understand mantha was at what you are Balboa, Eliza- dealing with. beth and Erica When you went down for don’t under- family week, stand, the fear where family — Elizabeth Smith o v e r w h e l m s members are you. It’s usu- taught about ally because the addiction. you’re scared Elizabeth had the stereotypical to death.” image of drug addicts coming Among other things, Eliza- from trashy-looking families in beth learned that when youth mind. become addicted to drugs at a “We walked in and I young age, the frontal cortex thought it would be all these of the brain’s growth is stunted, drug addicts,” she said. “But it leading to obsessive behavior was families that looked just and allowing impulses to take like us. I started crying, just over. In other words, things broke down. It was so good to aren’t fi ring correctly in the know I wasn’t alone.” addict’s brain. Elizabeth, who is still friends “The drugs stop their ma- with some of the families she turity,” Elizabeth said. “They met that week, said Jim, the don’t have the necessary logic class instructor, taught about or the stop zone, because the enabling. For example, often control center hasn’t kicked in parents of addicts will make yet.” conditions such as buying the For Samantha, Balboa Ho- addict a car if they get clean. rizons was an answer to prayers as it put her on the road to re- covery. In May 2013, she did a video for Balboa, telling about We have years of experience in design, carpentry, and engineering. her story. We won’t stop until the job is “It was really cool, because fi nished and you are content. like most people I’ve talked Our long list of satisfi ed to here, I haven’t really had clients attest to our ability the close relationships with to get the job done right. women,” Samantha said in the video. “Coming to Balboa, in an all-girl’s facility, we really 503.393.2875 formed a sisterhood. Every- remodelkeizer.com one could really relate to each CCB#155626 other and you could get just completely open and honest about everything going on. It EXPERIENCE PROFESSIONALISM TRUSTWORTHINESS “No one really knew what to do or say to someone who was clearly high and out of her mind.” was like family support.” After her time at Balboa, Samantha moved into a so- ber living house with several friends she made at Balboa. They had to stay clean, do ran- dom urine tests three times a week and went through a 12- step AA process. Samantha and two others then moved into a condo, followed the same rules and went to work at rehab fa- cilities. “The biggest thing is to have a lot of people around you who understand, who’ve been through the same battles,” Elizabeth said. “I’d love for her to be at home, but Orange County is the largest area for rehab and sober living. Plus it’s sunny around there, which is so nice for addicts with de- pression. She needs to have a sober support group of people her age. That is lacking in the Salem/Keizer area. The people she’s with down there, she can’t bullshit them. An addict can spot an addict faster than any- one and is so quick to call you on it. They’ve all been through it.” By contrast, Elizabeth said there’s a lack of awareness of the issue in Keizer. “This town needs to wake up,” she said. “People assume it will never happen to them. We want to bring awareness to Keizer. We’ve got to talk about it and have these conversa- tions. When one more kid gets buried, that breaks my heart. We live in a nice neighbor- hood and look like the typical American family. Don’t ever think it can’t happen to your child.” After Samantha was on the road to recovery, Elizabeth reached out to the young man that was with her daughter shortly after her overdose. “He came from a good Christian family, in a nice Keizer neighborhood,” Eliza- beth said. “His parents both worked during the day and he did heroin while they worked. He said he didn’t think his par- ents would listen. I told him, ‘You’d be amazed. It’s a lot better for them to learn it now than to fi nd out after you’re dead.’ Sam said he got his life together and is married now.” Elizabeth would like to have a public meeting in Keizer to talk about the issue and would like to see more treatment op- TIME TO SELL! AVERAGE LIST PRICE, 2015: $226,264 6% 2014: $213,451 UNITS SOLD 9.9% 2015: 471 2014: 424 KEIZER REAL ESTATE AVERAGE DAYS ON BY THE MARKET IN 2015: 99 NUMBERS………………… 2015 LISTINGS SOLD FOR 97.8% OF LIST PRICE Statistics provded by Willamette Valley Multiple Listing Service (WVMLS) tions and facilities locally. “We need to develop a website of resources,” she said. “Oregon is lacking the re- sources. I had to go out of state to save my daughter. That needs to be addressed. Balboa needs to open a place up here. We have people dying left and right. You need to get them around people who’ve been there because they speak their language. I don’t speak it, but they do. There are no things like narcotics anonymous for young people up here.” Elizabeth has suggestions for parents. “Watch your pain pills,” she said. “Watch your medicine cabinet, your prescriptions, your kids. It’s just way too easy for them to get their hands on the pills. Don’t bring pain meds into your house. It’s so impor- tant that we talk about it. We’re losing an entire generation to prescription medications. A lot of kids are dying because they got into heroin more than they thought they would.” Even though her daughter is doing better, Elizabeth bat- tles living in fear. “The risk of relapse is real,” she said. “It’s always going to be a threat. A relapse can always happen. I am always on edge. I sleep with my phone next to the bed, just waiting for that call. I pray it never comes. I’m more afraid of that knock on the door in the middle of the night.” Elizabeth put the struggle into simple terms. “It’s like staring down the devil,” she said. “I’m not going to blink.” The whole experience has left Elizabeth infuriated, espe- cially in regards to how dealers get youth started. “They give it away at par- ties just to hook them,” said Elizabeth, who has shared all the information and contact information from Facebook messages with police to help their efforts. “You know how we tell our kids don’t take candy from a stranger? It’s the same with drugs. If you knew taking that one hit, to give you that high, could end up like Sam that next day, unable to walk, throwing up because every muscle in her body hurt, you’d realize it’s not worth it. It’s horrifying. Plus it could kill you the fi rst time.” Having watched her friends Jeff and Hollie Crist bury their son Brandon, who died at the age of 22 in September due to a heroin overdose, Elizabeth knew she had to publicly share her family’s story. She posted about it recently on Facebook and willingly shared the story with this paper in the hopes of making people aware of the dangers. “The one person who was going to call 9-1-1 to save Samantha’s life that night was Brandon Crist. I don’t believe we’ve gone through this to just be quiet about it,” Eliza- beth said. “We would miss the whole point.” APRIL & BRIAN McVAY 503.510.6827 mcvaythree@gmail.com BORN, RAISED, & RESIDING IN KEIZER Sam Goesch Ins Agcy Inc Sam Goesch CLU, Agent 3975 River Road North Keizer, OR 97303 Bus: 503-393-6252 State Farm , Bloomington, IL 1211999