Fentanyl is more than 50 times more potent than heroin.
With an unprecedented surge in fentanyl disguised as other substances, a single non-prescription pill can be deadly. This harsh reality was close to home for a New York family who lost their daughter in 2022. Fox News reported that Paige Gibbons, 19, a freshman at Hobart and William Smith Colleges who dreamed of becoming a doctor, believed she was taking Percocet with friends on November 20 of that year.
“She was staying with a friend and her parents were home, and she and her friend were about to take Percocet, but she thought it was Percocet,” said her father, David Gibbons, of Pittsford, N.Y. “What her parents didn’t know was that it wasn’t Percocet, it was 100 percent fentanyl.”
At 1:05 that afternoon, David and his wife, Kate’s lives changed forever when a sheriff’s deputy knocked on their door and told them their daughter had overdosed.
“It was the loudest scream I’ve ever heard in my life. I wondered what she was screaming about and it was an intruder or something,” David said of his wife’s reaction to the unbelievable news.
Paige was with two friends at the time of her overdose, with media reports saying one of them had purchased the drugs over social media.
In an interview, David said one of his friends nearly died. New York’s Office of Addiction Services and Support (OASAS)The other person, who chose not to take the pill, “witnessed one of the worst things a teenager can witness in their life,” David said.
“She probably trusted a friend, or a friend trusted someone they knew,” Paige’s mother, Kate, said. “We thought she was a little naive in that regard. Unfortunately, it cost her her life.”
Paige’s death came as a great shock to her parents, who never thought of her as a troublemaker or drug user, a perception that was later confirmed through conversations with her friends.
“This one mistake was obviously the worst mistake of Paige’s life,” David said. “We don’t want her to be blamed for the worst mistake she’s ever made.”
“Our lives have been thrown into chaos,” David said. “The milestones I hoped for — the birth of my first grandchild, attending a wedding, graduating from college, helping others — will never be realized for Paige.”
Paige’s parents said she aspired to be a doctor and had “high goals to make a positive impact on the world.”
Though she died young, Paige left an indelible impression at Our Lady of Mercy High School in Rochester, New York, where she taught her classmates CPR, specifically for women. Because the school only had male mannequins, Paige used her own money to purchase a female model so her classmates could practice on it.
After her dreams were tragically cut short, Paige’s parents decided to share her story in hopes that she would continue to help others and spare other families the heartache they experienced.
Their story is one of several featured in “Addiction: The Next Steps,” a 30-minute film produced by OASAS to educate New Yorkers about the growing problem.
“I can’t believe that there are still people out there going through this exact situation,” Kate said. “I want to shout this from the mountain tops, let people know: be prepared for this to happen to you. Be prepared to die if you try this.”
“When you’re deciding whether to take a pill or whatever medicine someone gives you, think about this: Do you want to see the look on your mother’s face mourning you?”
“We don’t discriminate,” David says, “regardless of socio-economic, race or religion. If you take a pill, you could die that night.”
Fentanyl is more than 50 times more potent than heroin.