Two valiant families, one in Ohio and one in Maine, recently have done something that is important to acknowledge. Each family lost a member to the scourge of drug addiction and death with incredible similarities. Their stories carry an impact against the use of narcotics, especially heroin, and the heartbreaks of addiction, emphasizing results increasingly seen across America. This story is true.
During my training in New York City decades ago, I became familiar with the problems caused by heroin, which was the drug of choice at that time for reasons similar to those seen today, including supply, demand, cost and popularity. The intense rush and high, today often mixed with fentanyl, has recertified heroin as the king of addiction. The end results increasingly are seen in news accounts and obituaries. Overdoses abound, often resulting in death unless Narcan is available and used expeditiously.
Heroin is the undisputed champion — the tiger — and easily is the most fearsome and havoc-wreaking narcotic ever. Unfortunately, the eye of the tiger has focused close to home.
The Cincinnati suburb of Harrison, Ohio, was the final resting place of Alex Hesse. Alex was born in 1988 and died by heroin overdose Jan. 29, 2015. He was 26 and from a normal American family with no other addiction issues. Alex was a music expert — as a writer and multi-instrumentalist — and played sports, yet he made a mistake along the line and paid the ultimate price.
His struggles with addiction and its effects are openly chronicled in his obituary by his mom, Penny, and his dad, Rick. This was done in hopes that it would help other young people avoid drugs. It was hard to do, given a tradition of obituaries that avoided the causes of death, concentrating on generic statements that leave readers guessing.
The results were unexpected. The story reached the social media and exploded. The small Brater-Winter Funeral Home in Harrison had 27,000 hits in one day and tens of thousands after. The online book of condolences remembering Alex was immense and included not only friends and family but a huge number of strangers, most writing of their own losses, probably for the first time. Many congratulated the Hesses for their bravery and clarity in writing their son’s obituary. It was surprising that so many had hidden stories they wanted to tell.
Meanwhile, some 900 miles northeast, another death by heroin, Ryan Bossie of Caribou, took place a day after Alex’s. The similarities are notable and haunting — dying just one day after Alex, same age, same cause. The Bossie family also decided to be frank and were, in Ryan’s obituary, about losing him after a hard-fought battle with addiction. The Hesse and Bossie families did not know each other, nor do they today.
Death reporting in obituaries by tradition is not informative, especially with such tragedies as suicide or drug overdose. Friends and family know and strangers suspect the truth, just by the way the information is presented. Isn’t it better to be open and frank, using the obituary as a teaching instrument?
The serious nature of the heroin problem is stated in a March 2015 U.S. Centers for Disease Control report, showing victims now tend to be young and white. The report goes on to say there were 8,257 heroin deaths in 2013 compared to about 3,000 in 2010, with increases in men, women, all age groups, whites, blacks and Hispanics.
This problem is not going away. Despite efforts at education, use of Narcan, tougher enforcement and everything else, the tiger slinks along, snatching young folks in their prime.
It is not far fetched to envision a mom or dad clipping such an obituary for family to see. Posting such death notices on high school bulletin boards could serve as a teaching moment to students. Hesse and Bosse may have changed the way this subject is dealt with. It will be nice if they can be remembered that way.
Richard C. Dillihunt, M.D., a retired general, vascular and transplant surgeon, lives in Portland.