drdªv€
12-27-2004, 04:37 PM
Carl Hennon IV came home exhausted from one of his last summer shifts
at CiCi’s Pizza.
In a few days he was to leave his New Albany home for the next stage of
his life, studying at the Memphis College of Art.
Before turning in for the night, he tapped out an e-mail to a friend:
"I was tired at work last night. See you in the morning."
Outside, in clear view in the back seat of his 1994 Toyota Camry, was
an empty box for a bottle of cough syrup.
Misty Fetko, Carl’s mother, was also his alarm clock. On the morning of
July 16, 2003, Fetko took the dog out for a walk before going to wake
him.
That’s when she saw the empty Robitussin box.
A nurse, she had talked with Carl about a year earlier after she found
two empty bottles of Robitussin in the basement after a sleepover. Carl
told her that he drank the cough syrup because he heard "it could make
him high" but that it had no effect.
But when she went to confront her son this time, she knew something was
amiss. First, the door to his second-floor bedroom was locked. When she
entered, Carl lay on his back with his ankles crossed, not curled up in
his favorite blanket the way he usually slept.
Carl wasn’t breathing. She tried to resuscitate him and called the
Plain Township Fire Department.
It was too late.
Like any parent, Fetko worried that her son would get mixed up with
drugs.
"I was looking for the illegal street drugs, but this wasn’t my
nemesis," Fetko said recently. "My nemesis was actually sitting on a drugstore
shelf, or in a medicine cabinet, secretively, legally and affordably."
The tragic turn of events compelled Fetko to do something she never
contemplated: public speaking. She shared her story recently at the
California Governor’s Conference on Women and Families, hosted by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
The American Medical Association has recommended the adoption of laws
that would prohibit minors from buying Robitussin and Coricidin, which
contain the chemical compound dextromethorphan.
It’s a response to an increase in the number of young people
experimenting with and dying from the abuse of over-thecounter drugs.
If abused, dextromethorphan can provide a cheap, accessible high, said
David Baker, executive director of the Central Ohio Poison Center. The
center anticipates handling 99 calls on nonfatal dextromethorphan
overdoses this year, up from 40 in 2000.
Carl fell to a toxic combination, according to his autopsy. The coroner
found fentanyl — a powerful prescription painkiller — and
dextromethorphan.
Fentanyl was a factor in five overdose deaths here in 2003, said
Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis.
Dextromethorphan usually isn’t lethal by itself but becomes more
dangerous when mixed with another drug, Lewis said.
Samantha James, a 15-yearold student at Delaware’s Rutherford B. Hayes
High School, and Chris Miller, 17, a Watkins Memorial High School
student, both died in October 2002, from a mixture of morphine and
dextromethorphan, Lewis said.
Carl’s survivors were left with the question: Why did a talented young
man experiment with drugs?
Carl was the older of Fetko’s two sons. The 18-year-old was 6 feet
tall, weighed 170 pounds and had brown hair, dark chocolate brown eyes and
an incandescent smile. He graduated from St. Francis DeSales High
School in June 2003.
He was a self-taught guitarist who liked to play when he hung out with
his friends. He even cut his own compact disc.
Carl was best known for his art. An abstract drawing of a High Street
scene was displayed at an Ohio governor’s show for high-school students.
DeSales Principal Dan Garrick remembers Carl as "quiet and unassuming."
He sometimes had trouble keeping focused on academic subjects that
didn’t interest him, such as science and math.
But Garrick said it was evident that Carl was immensely talented and
that he was searching for his niche.
Fetko said she enjoyed a close relationship with her son and admits he
wasn’t perfect. She had caught him smoking marijuana three times. She
said he assured her that he was not "doing hard drugs."
She found other clues when she checked his computer: Carl visited Web
sites and chat rooms that discussed getting high on Robitussin.
She thinks that’s how he came up with the idea of using cough syrup
with fentanyl pain-relief patches.
New Albany police investigated but never had enough evidence to
prosecute anyone for providing fentanyl to Carl, police Chief Mark Chaney
said.
"Does that change our outcome? No," Fetko said.
Carl wrote in his journal that he liked doing Robitussin because of how
"creative" it made him feel.
But in another journal entry, he questioned whether what he was doing
was worth it.
"Carl hadn’t known what he was doing was as dangerous as it was," Fetko
said.
Fetko, who is an emergencyroom case manager at Riverside Methodist
Hospital, said the best way to honor her son’s memory was to warn others.
"It would be worth it if one family could be spared what we’ve had to
go through the last year and a half," Fetko said.
Her first speaking engagement was a retreat with freshmen from DeSales.
"The kids were very intent when they listened to her speak and share
the pain of her experience in losing a son," Garrick said.
Cpl. David Hunt, of the Franklin County sheriff’s office, is part of a
program called Operation Street Smart, which covers the dangers of
cough-syrup and cold-medicine abuse.
He has shared the podium with Fetko.
When Fetko speaks, Hunt said, "It’s an eye-opener. To have another
parent say, ‘My child died because of what these guys are talking about,’
that brings a more credible aspect."
Link: https://shop.dispatch.com/signin.asp?page=w...msg=1®type=1 (https://shop.dispatch.com/signin.asp?page=www.dispatch.com/news-story.php%3Cq%3Estory=dispatch/2004/12/27/20041227-B1-01.html&msg=1®type=1)
at CiCi’s Pizza.
In a few days he was to leave his New Albany home for the next stage of
his life, studying at the Memphis College of Art.
Before turning in for the night, he tapped out an e-mail to a friend:
"I was tired at work last night. See you in the morning."
Outside, in clear view in the back seat of his 1994 Toyota Camry, was
an empty box for a bottle of cough syrup.
Misty Fetko, Carl’s mother, was also his alarm clock. On the morning of
July 16, 2003, Fetko took the dog out for a walk before going to wake
him.
That’s when she saw the empty Robitussin box.
A nurse, she had talked with Carl about a year earlier after she found
two empty bottles of Robitussin in the basement after a sleepover. Carl
told her that he drank the cough syrup because he heard "it could make
him high" but that it had no effect.
But when she went to confront her son this time, she knew something was
amiss. First, the door to his second-floor bedroom was locked. When she
entered, Carl lay on his back with his ankles crossed, not curled up in
his favorite blanket the way he usually slept.
Carl wasn’t breathing. She tried to resuscitate him and called the
Plain Township Fire Department.
It was too late.
Like any parent, Fetko worried that her son would get mixed up with
drugs.
"I was looking for the illegal street drugs, but this wasn’t my
nemesis," Fetko said recently. "My nemesis was actually sitting on a drugstore
shelf, or in a medicine cabinet, secretively, legally and affordably."
The tragic turn of events compelled Fetko to do something she never
contemplated: public speaking. She shared her story recently at the
California Governor’s Conference on Women and Families, hosted by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
The American Medical Association has recommended the adoption of laws
that would prohibit minors from buying Robitussin and Coricidin, which
contain the chemical compound dextromethorphan.
It’s a response to an increase in the number of young people
experimenting with and dying from the abuse of over-thecounter drugs.
If abused, dextromethorphan can provide a cheap, accessible high, said
David Baker, executive director of the Central Ohio Poison Center. The
center anticipates handling 99 calls on nonfatal dextromethorphan
overdoses this year, up from 40 in 2000.
Carl fell to a toxic combination, according to his autopsy. The coroner
found fentanyl — a powerful prescription painkiller — and
dextromethorphan.
Fentanyl was a factor in five overdose deaths here in 2003, said
Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis.
Dextromethorphan usually isn’t lethal by itself but becomes more
dangerous when mixed with another drug, Lewis said.
Samantha James, a 15-yearold student at Delaware’s Rutherford B. Hayes
High School, and Chris Miller, 17, a Watkins Memorial High School
student, both died in October 2002, from a mixture of morphine and
dextromethorphan, Lewis said.
Carl’s survivors were left with the question: Why did a talented young
man experiment with drugs?
Carl was the older of Fetko’s two sons. The 18-year-old was 6 feet
tall, weighed 170 pounds and had brown hair, dark chocolate brown eyes and
an incandescent smile. He graduated from St. Francis DeSales High
School in June 2003.
He was a self-taught guitarist who liked to play when he hung out with
his friends. He even cut his own compact disc.
Carl was best known for his art. An abstract drawing of a High Street
scene was displayed at an Ohio governor’s show for high-school students.
DeSales Principal Dan Garrick remembers Carl as "quiet and unassuming."
He sometimes had trouble keeping focused on academic subjects that
didn’t interest him, such as science and math.
But Garrick said it was evident that Carl was immensely talented and
that he was searching for his niche.
Fetko said she enjoyed a close relationship with her son and admits he
wasn’t perfect. She had caught him smoking marijuana three times. She
said he assured her that he was not "doing hard drugs."
She found other clues when she checked his computer: Carl visited Web
sites and chat rooms that discussed getting high on Robitussin.
She thinks that’s how he came up with the idea of using cough syrup
with fentanyl pain-relief patches.
New Albany police investigated but never had enough evidence to
prosecute anyone for providing fentanyl to Carl, police Chief Mark Chaney
said.
"Does that change our outcome? No," Fetko said.
Carl wrote in his journal that he liked doing Robitussin because of how
"creative" it made him feel.
But in another journal entry, he questioned whether what he was doing
was worth it.
"Carl hadn’t known what he was doing was as dangerous as it was," Fetko
said.
Fetko, who is an emergencyroom case manager at Riverside Methodist
Hospital, said the best way to honor her son’s memory was to warn others.
"It would be worth it if one family could be spared what we’ve had to
go through the last year and a half," Fetko said.
Her first speaking engagement was a retreat with freshmen from DeSales.
"The kids were very intent when they listened to her speak and share
the pain of her experience in losing a son," Garrick said.
Cpl. David Hunt, of the Franklin County sheriff’s office, is part of a
program called Operation Street Smart, which covers the dangers of
cough-syrup and cold-medicine abuse.
He has shared the podium with Fetko.
When Fetko speaks, Hunt said, "It’s an eye-opener. To have another
parent say, ‘My child died because of what these guys are talking about,’
that brings a more credible aspect."
Link: https://shop.dispatch.com/signin.asp?page=w...msg=1®type=1 (https://shop.dispatch.com/signin.asp?page=www.dispatch.com/news-story.php%3Cq%3Estory=dispatch/2004/12/27/20041227-B1-01.html&msg=1®type=1)