NEWS

Mom talks about daughter's heroin death

Andy Fitzpatrick
Battle Creek Enquirer
Sherida Carey talks about the issues she faced when her daughter, Erin, got addicted to heroin.

The obituary of Erin Carey stood out on the page.

The Battle Creek woman, 33 years old and 2001 graduate of Pennfield High School, died at home in September. Her obituary starts like a lot of them do. It talked about her time at Kellogg Community College and Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and about her move to Portland, Ore.

A little beyond the words about Erin's love of her grandmother and nieces, and how much time she liked to spend outdoors, the obituary becomes a discussion about overdosing on drugs.

"Erin struggled with some darker things in her life as well, and one of those things was addiction," the obituary reads. "It was a fight that she lost in the end."

Erin's mother, Sherida Carey of Battle Creek, said her son wrote the obituary but it was the mom's idea.

"I know how much she struggled and I know how much she cared about kids," Carey said Friday. "She always told me how she thought about the little ones; 12-, 13- and 14-year-old kids that are going into a situation where, when she was young, it would be trying a cigarette or trying to drink a beer. She said, 'they’re going to be trying heroin and you can’t get out of it.'"

Erin died of a heroin overdose, Carey said. She said the medical examiner told her the heroin was laced with the additive fentanyl, making a dangerous drug even more deadly. Carey said her daughter had been suicidal in the past, but that the examiner though this case was an accident.

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Erin Carey died of a heroin overdose in September.

"She was taking heroin but she didn’t know what was mixed in, and I think that’s what’s happening all over," Carey said.

Sgt. Jeff Case of the Battle Creek Police Department said in January there were 21 opiate overdoses and eight deaths. From Feb. 1 to Feb. 4, there were six overdoses and four deaths.

LifeCare Ambulance Service Director of Operations Steve Frisbie said that the service provided Narcan, a medication that can stop the effects of opiates in the case of an overdose, to patients in the Battle Creek area 40 times since Jan. 1. From Feb. 1 to Feb. 6, it was administered 13 times.

According to the Substance Abuse Council, Calhoun County had 147 heroin overdoses in 2016. There were also 89 non-heroin opiate overdoses.

Carey said Erin had been struggling with an addiction for about 10 years, and the parents knew about it for about five years. Erin was living at home when she overdosed, and her parents found her.

Michigan State Police Trooper Kristi Angelo was with Carey on Friday to talk about Erin. Angelo co-founded the Calhoun County chapter of Families Against Narcotics after her son, Nicholas Grumeretz, died of a prescription painkiller overdose.

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Michigan State Trooper Kristi Angelo talks about the issues she has faced and why drug overdose is affecting more younger individuals in recent years

Carey's been to a few meetings and Angelo said the two families' stories are similar, and they're similar to many more.

"Dealing with families of people that are suffering with this addiction, it’s amazing how much alike they all are," Angelo said. "They’re very artistic, sensitive, they have a lot of compassion."

Carey wondered if "tough love" might've been a better way to get through to her daughter.

"People said, 'you should kick her out; she needs to be at her lowest point so she’ll turn around,'" Carey said. "We didn’t do that. I’m glad she was at home, but did it do her any good? Probably not."

Angelo pushed back on that. She said that approach doesn't work with everyone, and Erin's death may have happened anyway.

"That’s something that we as parents are going to struggle with forever," Angelo said.

It's a struggle that Carey hopes can be avoided through awareness. Raising awareness is the biggest thing that communities need to do right now, she said. That's why the obituary was written the way it was.

"Now that Erin is no longer with us, if her passing can be the example that keeps someone from even trying heroin, she would volunteer her story in a heartbeat,"  the obituary reads. "Even though her story came to a close, sadly, and much too soon, if a life can be saved because hers was lost, her goal of setting a good example will carry on."

The obituary made its way into a project by STAT reporter David Armstrong called "52 Weeks, 52 Faces." In it, the health and medicine reporter presented obituaries that, like Erin's, were frank about drug addiction. Carey said she didn't know it was going to be included in the project until someone sent it to her.

"I was glad that that he included it but I just though the whole thing was just so sad," Carey said. "I thought, 'OK, that gives an awareness of all of the addictions and it benefits people. I was glad that she was an example, I guess, because that’s what we’re trying to do.'"

Contact Andy Fitzpatrick at 269-966-0697 or afitzpatrick@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @am_fitzpatrick. Hear him on "The Jump Page" at soundcloud.com/enquirerpodcasting

Where to get help

For people and families struggling with addiction, resources are available through the Substance Abuse Council at www.drugfreebc.org or by calling 966-7580.

Families Against Narcotics meets at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of every month at Barista Blues Cafe, 91 W. Michigan Ave. Tuesday's meeting will be held at the Alano Club of Battle Creek, 1125 W. Territorial Road, due to Valentine's Day activities at the cafe. For more information, call 832-4945 or email calhoun@familiesagainstnarcotics.org.

The Alano Club also offers programs; call 660-3288 or go to alanoclubbc.org. More information on The Haven of Rest Ministries Life Recovery Program can be found at www.thehavenbc.org or 965-1148.