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ANDREW C. DEL REGNO
Our son, Andrew,
died on September 26, 2002 from an OxyContin
overdose. It has been a little over a year since his
death and our family has been imploded and we will
never be the same. Every day is Hell!
Andrew was
twenty years old, one month from his 21st birthday,
and a junior at Saint Michael's College in the
Burlington, Vermont area. Everything in his life
seemed wonderful...He had a lot of friends, was very
popular, had no financial worries since we paid for
his College, and he was planning on going to Italy for
his Spring semester since he had just completed his
second language course in Italian. He had so much to
"live for" and to "give to this world" and now he is
gone.
We are a very
close and loving family. Andrew brought us so much
joy with his sense of humor and stability and caring.
We did things together and spoke all the time. The
night before he died he called us and said he had just
finished his homework and was going out for a little
while with some friends. My wife and I both spoke to
him and told him we loved him and he told us he loved
us and we were always so good to him. Everything was
fine and we were so proud of him and "Happy."
Then that
horrible dreadful day happened that every parent
fears. A state policeman came to our home that
morning and told us our son was dead from an apparent
drug overdose. We said no, no, this can't be, you
have the wrong person, the wrong house! This has to
be a mistake. It has been a living hell for us since
that day. The friends who were with him that night
(and they come from supposedly successful and good
families) are reluctant to talk to us. Nobody wants
to get involved...We know they were involved, had
impaired judgment, and they could have saved his
life. I could go on and on with what we have learned
about how this happened to our son, and how it can
happen to anyone.
There is a
prescription drug abuse epidemic in our High Schools
and on College campuses across America, and most
people are unaware of it until it effects their
family.
Purdue Pharma's
OxyContin is a deadly drug that is easily accessible
to our high school and college children, because of
its mislabeling as a moderate pain killer. Many
doctors and dentist who have little understanding of
how deadly and addictive OxyContin is are prescribing
it so readily to their patients for moderate pain
relief. These pills are finding their way to our
children as a social/recreational drug. OxyContin
needs to be strictly controlled and monitored for use
only for very severe pain so it cannot find its way so
easily to the street.
"We can't let
Purdue Pharma's OxyContin continue to kill our
children!!!!!!"
THE WAKE LEFT BEHIND!
Andrew's Parents - Theresa
& Victor R. Del Regno
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