Johnny's Story

Spirit is bugging me to write this story. I said I would and so here it is.

Johnny was my best friends brother. He had a back injury and required surgery. The surgeon, who was performing this surgery noticed something on his spine and instead of taking a picture of it. This asshole surgeon kept his patient on the table longer than you normally should. As a result, he required constant medication changes of some pretty powerful drugs. Every so many months the doctors would change this medication.

When he was required to change medication. He would have to be taken off those meds cold turkey. Think just like an addict is taken off drugs to go clean. This is very painful to the patient. These patients are not weened off of these drugs slowly as they should be. Then on to the next frankenstein drug. Some of these drugs can cause severe paranoia. This last round was causing a lot of paranoia. It was getting so bad that unfortunately this man took his life.

In between these events, he had met a girl and he was going to ask her to marry him. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding and they broke up. Their paths crossed again about five or ten years later. I was very excited for them. I thought finally, they're going to have their happy ending. Unfortunately that thought was very short lived. They had been dating again a little over a year. The stress of being on this tug of war with medications finally took its toll. His father was over for a visit and had a doctors appointment that day. While his father was at his appointment. He had made sure his pets were closed in another room. He had bought a shot gun and went into another room and closed the door and put it under his chin and pulled the trigger.

When his father returned, he found the body of his son. He was in so much shock that he went to a neighbors house to make the call. Fortunately one of the neighbors was a police officer and took over calling the authorities. That neighbor pretty much handled everything while the father was numb with shock. His son had made sure that all his affairs were in order before taking his life. He wanted to make sure that his pets would be cared for. Which is why he waited til his father came down for a visit. His mother was a nurse so she was like a rock. His father was a complete mess and so were most of the people that attended the funeral.

I remember looking at his father and thinking that he looked like he was going to shatter at any moment. Those drugs that Johnny, was given beat him down until he just couldn't live like that another day. Sometimes the drug dealers aren't on your corner. Sometimes they were such titles as MD and they are the absolute worst criminals. They don't even get jail time for the murders they've committed most of the time.

I've met many families that have had family members commit suicide. Many people need to quit blaming the person who committed suicide and having compassion for them. Until you've walked in their shoes, you will never have an idea of the things they've lived through when they finally reach a breaking point.

Penny J.
Raven Hawke, Llc (MN, USA)
info@ravenhawke.net
www.ravenhawke.net