Mom who lost son to opioid overdose shares heartbreaking photo

CALGARY, Alberta — A Calgary mother wants the world to see the destructiveness of drugs.

As her son lay dying in a hospital bed from an overdose of fentanyl, a man-made opioid, Sherri Kent climbed into the bed to comfort him and held his hand. Kent posted a photo of the emotional moment on Facebook in hopes of warning others to stay away from the deadly drug.

Her son, Michael, was just 22 years old.

"I just want everyone to know that my son Michael overdosed on fentanyl," she wrote in the Facebook post. "My son was not an addict he made a mistake that cost him his life. I just want to make everyone aware of the epidemic that's goin (sic) on right now. It's out of control and there is no way to protect our children from this other than to warn them of the dangers of drug use today.

“I’ve lost my son to this horrible tragedy and want to make parents aware that it can happen to anyone … Please share this with your family and friends to help prevent another tragedy.”

In an interview with the CBC, Kent said her son met a man who offered him heroin while he was in the town of Kelowna – about 240 miles east of Vancouver. He didn't initially take the man's offer; however, Kent said the man tracked her son down the next day.

She said the man and her son went into a store bathroom to use the drug.

“The other man got all sketched out and messed up and left my son in the washroom,” Kent told the CBC. “About 20 minutes later, he was too scared to go back and check on my son … so he ran for the people who own the store to unlock the door, and that’s when they found him.

“He was already blue in the lips. By the time the ambulance got there, he was in cardiac arrest.”

The young man was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support. He died on March 21 when the life-support apparatus was turned off.

>> Watch the news report here

Cox Media Group