The type of feature I like to edit
This is the type of feature I’d like to edit more. This one is by writer and reporter Erika Fry.
The hidden victims of the opioid crisis: the ones who lived
Photography by Meridith Kohut.
I had no idea - none - that so many young Americans, after surviving an overdose, ended in such dire circumstances: brutal brain injuries, unable to walk, unable to talk, unable to hold down a job, having to live at home with parents-turned-carers.
I had no idea because it’s not really talked about. But listen to the parents in this piece, and your heart will break for everyone involved.
The picture essay that goes with it - where we followed a mother taking care of her son for 24 hours - is also a heartbreak.
This is the type of reporting that makes me proud to work in journalism.
Thanks for sharing. This was a powerful and heartbreaking piece. I’ve never, not even once, thought about overdose survival from this lens.
My heart goes out to the mothers who will do anything to bring their children back to who they once were. Heartbreaking how many such cases there are and how little we know about what repeated overdose does to the brain. The story of how the medical community views these cases is shocking.