Our Program

   Chad was born February 13,1998 a healthy beautiful baby boy, with beautiful blue eyes and long eye lashes. He was a chubby little guy weighing 9lbs 5oz. He was a happy young man who enjoyed people, loved to work with wood and work on cars, dirt bikes and four wheelers. He loved his family and family gatherings. Chad was not born an addict and did not want to be an addict but, in the end, addiction took his life. Chad was born with a hidden disease. He appeared to be accident prone as a child but after years of misdiagnoses, when he was 15yrs old he was finally diagnosed with Dystonia. This condition is debilitating, it makes a person’s muscles spasm, jerk, and twitch. By the time was diagnosed he had suffered from several years of major accidents, including fracturing his clavicle two times, 2 of his thoracic vertebrae, and approximately 25 concussions. Chad and his parents spent many weeks at Children’s Hospital and John Hopkins Hospital trying to figure out what was causing his falls. Finally, a young neurologist, Dr. Thakker figured it out, Chad was prescribed two anti-seizure medications and his falling ceased. Prior to being diagnosed Children’s Hospital had Chad on IV Dilaudid for a weeks at a time and would send us home with OxyContin pain medication. Unfortunately, his parents had no idea that this was creating an addict and taking away his happiness. Unfortunately, his parents didn't realize they should never have left him be medicated to take away the pain as he would have chronic pain the rest of his life. Chad did not choose addiction. He was given these drugs by some of the best doctors in the world. This was when pain medication was being pushed onto patients by the big pharmaceutical companies and doctors with any amount of pain at hospitals. When our family realized Chad was an addict, I can tell you that Chad and our family went to get him help, but it wasn't easy due to his medical conditions. Our mental health and addiction recovery centers are broken. Family can bring their loved one to a treatment center, but like most mental illnesses, until that person is ready to accept there is an issue, it’s a never ending cycle. While Chad was struggling with untreated mental illnesses, he was thrown into the legal system which further debilitated his mental status. These drugs should not be on the streets and these laws and mental health treatment need revised. Families should not have to watch their loved ones die like this. We as a community need to come together and get this garbage out of our country.