by Judy L. Thomas and Laura Bauer
Died: March 29, 2022
Fentanyl has killed more than 850 in KC area.
‘I thought that we were going to build an empire someday’ Ethan Everley never minded working, his dad says. Whether it was at Wendy’s — where he’d work the register, cook or do whatever was needed — or helping Dad with his delivery business and Mom with painting and drywall. That’s because long hours on the job meant that he got a paycheck and with that came freedom for the 16-year old from Gladstone. He bought his own phone and liked to get his own clothes. He even pitched in a little to help his dad pay for his dirt bike. “He could have been anything he wanted to be, really,” Brandon Everley, Ethan’s dad, said. “I thought that we were going to build an empire someday.” But on March 29, 2022 — after five days in an area hospital — the Oak Park High School sophomore died of what his dad says was an accidental fentanyl overdose. Messages on his phone showed he purchased “Percocet” from a guy his family had known for years. “As far as I can tell, the time that he overdosed, may have been as soon as the second time that he ever tried it,” Everley said. “The evidence we have only goes back to, like, the week before when he purchased them.” Federal authorities declined to file charges. The case is now in the hands of the Clay County prosecutor. Ethan, the youngest of five children, loved gym class and weightlifting but academic courses, not so much, his dad said with a small laugh. His home is where many of his friends hung out and he stood out as a leader among those his age. Before fentanyl took it all away. “It is poison,” Brandon Everley said. And when people die from it, countless others around them are left broken, he said. “The loss sticks with you — I don’t think the feeling will ever go away,” the dad said, his voice breaking. “It’s like waking up to a nightmare every day. … He’s never far from my thoughts.”
#VintageDava, #Awareness, #OpioidCrisis, #OpioidEpidemic, #OpioidCrisisFridays, #Controversy, #DrugOverdose, #Drugs, Fentanyl, #Missouri, #LivesDestroyed, #PurduePharma, #Scandal, #Tragedy
Follow Me at:
https://vintagedava.blogspot.com/
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/vintagedava
www.vintagedava.com
https://www.facebook.com/VintageDava/
https://www.instagram.com/vintagedava/
https://www.threads.net/@vintagedava
https://twitter.com/davagirl
Vintage Dava 