My son Issaiah was 15 years old when he died from fentanyl poisoning. He was in the middle of his sophomore year of high school. Issaiah was a very active teenager. He did well in school, he played football since the age of 4, and worked very hard to earn his spot on the varsity team. Issaiah did not have a history or showed any signs of substance abuse or addiction. The day we found out Issaiah experimented with drugs was the day we got the worst call of our lives.
On January 9th, 2021, Issaiah asked his father who he was visiting, if he could go to the mall with some friends to buy some shoes and clothes for school and stay at the friend’s house afterwards. Issaiah’s father didn’t know that was going to be the last time he would talk to him. Later that night I was woken up by my daughter, 13 screaming telling me to get up. A family member called to let us know they seen a photo of Issaiah on Snap Chat “passed out” and that he looked “dead”. I immediately called Issaiah’s father; he had just got notified as well. We were told Issaiah took a Percocet pill that was given to him by the older brother (19) of the friend. Issaiah went to lay down and never woke up. Unfortunately, paramedics were not called until an hour later. When we arrived at the ICU there was a team of doctors waiting for us to inform us that they were only fighting to keep Issaiah on life support to give us the opportunity to say goodbye. Issaiah was declared brain dead, and his organs were already shutting down. The only option we were given was to remove him off life support.
On January 10th, 2021, at 11:00pm, Issaiah took his last breath. He died before we could even make the decision that no parent is ever prepared to make. Issaiah had a bright future and spent his whole life pursuing his dream of going to college and making it to the NFL. He also wanted to join the military as his backup plan. It was later confirmed by the coroner’s office that Issaiah’s cause of death was due to a lethal dose of Fentanyl combined with Tylenol. There was no Percocet in his system. Issaiah never got an investigation even after providing information to law enforcement. The individual who gave Issaiah the lethal pill was seen on snap chat offering pills for sale 2 days after he killed him. Even with Issaiah being a minor they said there was nothing they could do. My son was given a death sentence while this person walks free.