QCN Special: Combating the fentanyl crisis in the Carolinas

The opioid crisis has ravaged communities and families across the Carolinas. Watch this Queen City News special report on fentanyl in the Carolinas on YouTube.

‘We dropped the ball’: Gaston County couple raises fentanyl awareness in memory of their son

Read the original article (with pictures) and watch the video on the Queen City News website.

GASTONIA, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Library shelves are full of all sorts of stories. Some have you on the edge of your seat, others make you laugh or answer pressing questions.

At the Dream Center in Gastonia, a photo book at the Austin Library is an introduction to a bigger story.

“We left one in the library so that students could see who Austin actually was. He was just like them, and that is what I like them to see,” said Tammy Chowdhury.

Her son Austin Chowdhury was well-loved and well-read.

“I feel like he was searching for answers in the world because he read all kinds of things,” Tammy told Queen City News.

The Austin Library is a tribute to the young man who died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at 24.

“It was just a total shock, it didn’t feel real,” Tammy says, taking a breath as she relives that dark day.

Fentanyl victims group pushing for Naloxone in all school

Read the original article and watch the video on the Queen City News website.

STATESVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — “I’m doing this because my 24-year-old daughter, Sophia, was killed by fentanyl on August 16th. And I didn’t even know how to spell fentanyl,” said Barb Walsh, the executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.

She’s been a voice for families suffering the loss of a loved one by fentanyl poisoning.

“It’s just a network of damaged families who are getting together and finding their power and their passion to heal one another, but also to stop that not from killing someone else,” Walsh said.

The network includes counties like Mecklenburg, Rowan, Iredell, and Catawba. Pictures of those who lost their lives to the poisoning lined the walls at the Bristol Road community center.

Many of their families are doing their best to keep their memories alive.

“Fentanyl took my husband on November 2023, And it has changed our whole daily routine. He was in my house every single day walking around and now he’s not,” said Stephanie Triplett. She started “Embers for Ashes” in response to the death of her husband.

“In 2022, my son T.J. passed away of fentanyl poisoning. He had 18 nanograms of fentanyl in his body, which is enough to kill nine people. He had taken what he thought was oxycodone, but it was a pill that had fentanyl. And he’s been gone since 2022,” said Stephanie Duck. She started “TJ’s Story Lives On”

Through tears, families discussed their losses — but also laid out an action plan to save other victims from death – putting naloxone in every school.

“We just don’t know where a young person might encounter fentanyl. And so the safest thing is to have an antidote within the school, just like an ied, just like an EpiPen, just like a fire extinguisher. It’s not expensive. So we’re advocating for doses per school, not just with school resource officers, but as an emergency first aid kit,” Walsh said.

Sheriff: Infant exposed to fentanyl, 2 arrested in Rowan County

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — An infant was rushed to the hospital after being exposed to fentanyl, according to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.

“[The baby] was completely blue, and I said, ‘God there’s no hope for that baby,’” said one neighbor who saw the infant as she was being loaded into an ambulance.

Deputies responded to calls regarding the incident around 2:58 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at a home along Sides Road. An 11-month-old infant was found unconscious and not breathing, and was transported to an area medical center after NARCAN was administered at the scene.

“You don’t hear a lot of stories about infants being injected with NARCAN because NARCAN is a very strong, powerful drug itself,” said Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen. “But when it’s a life or death situation, you don’t have anything to lose.”

A state trooper happened to be in the area when the call went out.

“If a guardian angel was going down the road, it was Trooper Eagle,” Sheriff Allen continued. “His CPR efforts before EMS and fire got there most likely saved the child.”

Following an initial investigation, deputies said that the mother, Jamie Robertson, retrieved a baby bottle from the father’s vehicle. She, her daughter, and James Danielson then fell asleep until Robertson awoke to the baby gasping for air and struggling to breathe.

“The mama she was just tore up,” the neighbor who did not want to be identified continued to say. “She really loved that baby, but she was hung up on drugs.”

Both Robertson and Danielson later admitted to investigators that they had injected fentanyl while in bed with the baby before falling asleep. Unsanitary conditions, along with various items of drug paraphernalia, drug residue, and uncapped syringes were found at the home.

“They both admitted to injecting each other and then passing out with the child in the bed with them, so it’s just severe neglect on their part,” said Sheriff Allen.

Danielson and Robertson have both been charged with felony neglect child abuse-serious bodily injury, and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.