The face of addiction: the moving image of a woman stroking her son dead from an overdose

In many cases, the opioid crisis in the United States is reduced to numbers, but a woman decided to put a face on it, that of his son, who died of dependency.

Nora Sheehan from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, shared a moving image of the body of his son Andrew Jugler, who fell into a spiral of substance dependence and pbaded away on his 29th birthday in October.

"Holding my dead son in my arms, it's the image of the addiction… that's what happens, "said the woman.

Andrew was an ordinary young man who loved mechanics. He was loved by his mother, his sisters, his nephew and his father-in-law, but everything changed in 2010.

The 56-year-old woman explained that Andrew He started his addiction by taking an badgesic with oxycotine, but gradually he switched to heroin and fentanyl.

Candace and Haley, sisters of Andrew, embarked on the fight to help their brother, but all failed.

The situation worsened when the young man left his home and settled in the forest of Elkton, Mary, with a group of friends also addicts. His family begged him to go home.

"In September, when I was taking him to rehabilitation, he jumped out of the car at 100 km / h, I stopped and started shouting, asked:" Where do you want to be buried? "said to Nora in statements that reproduce the Daily Mail.

Andrew died on October 7, but his family could only recognize the body two days later. Authorities warned Nora that her son's body was breaking down. She had to prepare for a strong smell during the funeral.

"It was the last thing that crossed my mind, I just wanted to hug my son," he expressed.

The family decided to invite Andew's friends to the funeral to remember him and raise public awareness of the serious effects of addictions.

"I hope that sharing this image will have an impact on addicts, but my greatest hope is that the rest of us will stop being strangers to the problem."added Nora.

"I never thought that heroin and fentanyl were also present in my community, it's an epidemic," he concluded.

The opioid crisis has become a public health problem in recent years. President Donald Trump He referred to the outbreak in his State of the Union address and announced measures to combat it.

For the second year in a row, life expectancy in the country has decreased due to fentanyl addiction. He fell at 78.6 years, "the lowest of developed high-income countries," according to a study badyzing official figures from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).