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As anguished families grieve the loss of their family members due to opioid overdose deaths, they call for the opioid industry to undergo reform.
According to a story by NPR, the family of 27-year-old Destini J. is dealing with immense hardship as she begins recovery from over a dozen strokes which landed her in a coma for weeks. The strokes and coma were a result of Destini’s latest opioid overdose.
Having almost lost their daughter to one of the 42,000 of opioid overdose deaths which occur every year, Destini’s family is struggling with the damage done to both their daughter and their financial stability.
In August 2017, Destini was full of hope after being released from jail after her two month sentence for drug charges. Excited about her new freedom, Destini talked about plans to find a job and get her life back on track.
Eight months after her release from jail, Destini experienced an opioid overdose which involved over a dozen strokes and landed her in a coma.
“Her troubles just kept piling on top of one and the other and the other and the other,” Destini’s mother, Katiena J., told NPR. “They just bury [themselves] deeper and deeper in cost after cost after cost, of court costs and everything else.”
Although Destini is currently regaining consciousness and is out of the ICU, Destini’s addiction has heaped tremendous financial burden on her family as they attempt to pay her medical bills and care for her two children. With rehab costing about $50,000 a month, there is no end in sight for Destini and her family.
“I got a call from … a collection agency, and I hate getting stuff like that while she’s in this condition,” Katiena Johnson said to NPR. “The second day she was in here, I got a court paper rolled up on my door for damage at some kind of apartment complex.” In all the discussion about the cost of opioid addiction, Johnson says, there are few words about the toll it takes on families.
Opioid overdose deaths do not only costs families, they also cost the United States time and money in the form of emergency response, health care, criminal justice, rehabilitation and lost productivity. Health care research firms estimate that opioid overdose deaths and injuries has cost the United States $1 trillion since 2001.
America is gripped by an opioid epidemic with opioid overdose deaths accounting for the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. Economist Micheal Hicks at Ball State University says that fighting the opioid epidemic will cost government funds and family resources.
Congress has approved $6 billion in funding to address the opioid epidemic over the next two years, but Hicks says America is “looking at a fairly grim period of investment to try to solve a problem that we’re going to still have around for some time”.
Following an increase in opioid overdose deaths, many families are calling for the government and the opioid industry to address the opioid epidemic publicly and quickly.
Some families have filed lawsuits against opioid companies, claiming that the flood of opioids into communities due to wrongfully filled prescriptions has lead to many opioid overdose deaths.
In general, opioid overdose death lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.
If your loved died from an opioid overdose in the last three years from an addiction that began as a legal opioid prescription from his or her doctor, you may have a legal claim. Get help now by filling out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.
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