Two overdoses…
HYANNIS — Overdoses are still a daily occurrence in the mid-Cape area…
Last evening there were at least two overdoses in the downtown area on the east side of Hyannis.
In the above photos, people came running to help after screams were heard. A man was down on the ground in a parking lot. Narcan needed to be administered more than once. HN observed the patient was conscious and sitting up before being hoisted onto a stretcher. The patient was transported to CCH …
In another rescue call, a man became combative with first responders after overdosing on Spice. In the above photo, additional Hyannis Firefighters were sent to the scene to help restrain the man. The patient was also transported to CCH, followed closely by police…
In other news:
There were a couple of bad traffic accidents last evening.
The first accident (above photo) occurred at the intersection of Old Townhouse Road and Station Ave in Yarmouth. Police were searching for a male driver after he reportedly fled from the scene on foot. The other driver was injured and transported to CCH…
In the second accident (above photo), Barnstable Police and two Hyannis Rescue ambulances responded to a head on collision on Route 28 in front of the Intermediate School. Two were transported to CCH. The injuries were reportedly not life-threatening.
HN NOTE: It was pretty typical last evening. There were the usual violent calls, one involving a dangerous weapon… another where a son kicked in his mother’s screen door and cops had to chase him down. The usual nonsense. But occasionally, it’s important to point out that drug overdoses are still an ongoing problem here.
On a brighter note, both OD patients from last evening appeared as though they would luckily survive another day on this side of the turf.
Sometimes it takes several ODs for an individual to finally wake up. Someone dear to me overdosed 7 times before taking on the fight of her life to stay clean and take the painful stab at rebuilding her life. She has been clean for over two years and wants to leave a mark on this world. (Update: She just corrected me, it’s actually three years clean… and she’s counting every sober second on this planet… not wanting to miss any of it! God bless her.) To me, that’s a miracle because of a time when I watched her in the ICU, not thinking she would ever smarten up.
She did, good for her.
Another friend has close to 20 years clean. Refocused his abundant energies from drug seeking to doing the right things. He owns a business and some rental apartments…
And for anyone who has ever been around addicts and drunks (we all have), in general they are much easier people to deal with when they have a good hunk of sobriety and sanity under their belts. And sometimes, after a while, you find yourself actually enjoying their company once again.
Oh, recovering addicts and drunks can still be a pain in the ass, don’t get me wrong… but I personally enjoy being around a sober pain in the ass much more than the active one.
And there have been a few who didn’t make it. Drank themselves to death or whatever. And it’s devastating, and you mourn them… for a while at least. But the pain always dissipates to some degree as time wears on. It may sound cold hearted, maybe even insensitive in this modern time of “feelings” and political correctness, but I only tend to fondly recall the ballzy souls who kept on fighting the good fight right up to the end, no matter what.
I have this tendency to eventually forget the ones who seemingly gave up and left this planet because of drugs…
… especially the ones who never gave recovery at least one honest shot.
See, somewhere in my ancient but useful little Neanderthal brain, it’s alright to someday reach that point where time necessarily makes way for eternity, but only if you go out swinging!
It’s never, EVER, okay to throw the fight!
Now, I can already envision the many “feel-gooders” smashing their keyboards, “What a heartless thing to say! You heartless man!!
But it’s true, I tend to only remember the fighters, always have, probably always will… just being honest…
9/3/2015
Robert Bastille,
P.S. – Today’s HyTown Vignette is brought to you by Bobby Dylan… [You know what to do…]
