Friday, September 29, 2006

Another Triple C DXM Death

This was posted on the Dr. Phil message board site. It was posted by a woman who would like to get the word out, DXM is dangerous and we need to all warn our kids. Please read this and pass it on to others. This is just so sad! The kids really think this is safe! Please tell them it isn't. Thank you,Beth
Tragedy Strikes Again
I'm writing to share with you a terrible thing that I have experienced last Sunday through today and hope that you can
spread a message for us. The pain that we, her family and friends are feeling right now is indescribable, and the worst part, so needless. My daughter's friend, whom she to went to school with since kindergarten, died early last Sunday morning. She was 16 years old. We have known her family since the girls met at Catholic School and kept in touch, saw them at church and school functions, birthday parties, etc. They
carpooled together their freshman year. She was probably the most
popular girl I have ever met, loved by the girls as well as the boys, a super soccer and la crosse player. She was just beautiful with big blue eyes, long blond hair.

Last Monday, she took 24 'triple C' pills. Triple C is plain old
cough, cold, codeine over the counter pills we give our children when they are sick. Triple C is the new high for teenagers. She was not angry, unhappy or anything else. She was not a drug user. She just wanted to get high and heard this was a fun and easy way to do it. When she began vomiting Tuesday morning and couldn't stop, her parents took her to Children's Hospital in Orange. Although she text messaged a friend on Monday night about what she had done, she didn't tell the doctors, the nurses, or her parents. Neither did her friend or any of the other friends who were forwarded the text message. For four days, test after test was being done to figure out what was wrong. Still no one said anything. On Friday, she slipped into a coma and was given last rites before being flown to UCLA Medical Ctr
on Saturday morning. Her liver had completely failed and she passed at 2:30 a.m.

The Memorial Service yesterday at La Purisima was the saddest day I have ever spent. The church was full (it holds 1200), several hundred teens alone. To see her in that white coffin weighing 25# or so more than her tiny self and looking years older because she was full of toxins was a sobering sight for those kids. As that little coffin was rolled down the church aisle today flanked by her brother and cousins, followed by her grieving aunt, grandmother and parents, I swear the whole church was sobbing. Her poor dad was taken to St Joe's at the conclusion of the church service for a potential heart attack (his third) and missed the 16 white doves let at the graveside. If this girl had known how many people loved, adored her...I know she didn't think taking all those pills would kill her, just give her a high, make her feel good for awhile. I know if she could have seen all those people with so much pain in them these last days,
she would have thought twice about putting those pills in her mouth. These kids think they are invincible, that death cannot touch them at 16. They just have no idea. I had never heard of 'triple C' being used as a high or 'huffing' which is opening the cold capsule and snorting it. But when I asked around, all the kids were very aware of the term and the high. If each one of us tells one person about this story, and that person tells someone else, and they tell someone, and so forth, maybe we can help some other teen avoid dying so needlessly, avoid ruining their parents’ lives, hurting their friends and family.