Upstate families share pain of losing children due to fentanyl overdose | South Carolina

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) – Spreading awareness and understanding when it comes to fighting the opioid crisis in Greenville.

Fighting Injustices Together (FIT) held a community forum at the Augusta Road Family Library Wednesday evening to discuss the issues fentanyl has caused Greenville.

Families who have personally lost loved ones to opioid overdoses shared their painful experience.

This epidemic is a national crisis that has plagued many communities.

Pain and misery is a reality for Christina Torry and Linda Ward. Both of their children died because of fentanyl overdoses. 

“It’s become a nation wide emergency epidemic,” said Torry, whose son Jacob Huffman died. “It’s horrible what’s happening in Greenville and how many deaths we’re because of this.”

Although life isn’t the same without their loved ones, they plan to turn the heartbreak into a mission of helping others and find closure.

“I need to do something to help her, help her memory,” Ward said, whose daughter Tabitha Terry died. It’s made me a mother all over again because I’m raising her child, her five year old son whom were now responsible for.“

Greenville police chief Ken Miller was also at the meeting where he shared the alarming number of people first responders encountered in 2018 because of opioid overdose.

“There were 710 reversals. Now reversals there were over 800 that we administered Narcan (Naloxone) to. I think 864 might have been the number but there 710 reversals. Those are people who were overdosed, who were at risk of death and whose death was prevented.”

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