Brian's Story
Forever 17
Brian Wilkins Jr. 9/22/02-5/16/21
Forever 18
Sunday May 16th, 2021 9:45 pm
There we were…
My Husband and I were watching tv and my phone rang. It was an “acquaintance” of my son Brian…not a close friend…he said to me…
”I heard Brian is overdosing, let me give you an address.”
I didn’t know what to think. Was this true?! Was this a joke?! Scribbling down the address I hung up the phone.
Immediately calling 911…telling the call taker that this information was just given to me and I’m not sure if it’s the truth or not but please go check. We got dressed and drove to that address which was only 7 minutes from our house. We kept thinking this has to be a joke! He’s supposed to be at a concert!
As we pulled up we felt the gut wrenching terror… 5 police cars, an ambulance, a fire truck…and Brian’s car. I knew something was terribly wrong. Sprinting to the front door it opened and it was pushed out by a police officer.
I screamed, “That’s my SON, IS HE OKAY?!”
She said “You can’t go inside and they were working on him.”
In complete and utter shock…I just wanted to be with my baby.
After waiting outside 20 minutes they told us to follow him in the ambulance to the ER. They put us in the waiting room. My thoughts spinning…he’s going to be fine…he must still be alive… they wouldn’t transport him if he was dead?
Then the ER Dr came in with his nurse about 45 minutes later and asked “What was going on with Brian?”
I said “I don’t know, he had some struggles in the past and the officer I talked to on scene said something about possible Percocets.”
The Dr confirmed that’s what the paramedics told him…that Brian ingested an unknown amount of Percocets.
He got quiet for a minute…then looked at us and said, “I’m sorry, but your son has died.”
I didn’t even know how to feel at that instant! Total shock and disbelief came over me. He then told us we could see him for as long as we needed.
My Husband and I, Brian’s Father and his Wife walked down the hall to the room he was in. He was laying on a stretcher with a blanket covering his bottom half. His arms were tucked in his boxers, his eyes were open, and yellow with broken blood vessels all through them. He still had the intubation tube in his mouth. There was dried blood in his mouth. He was cold and blue.
This is not the way any parent should have to see their child. Cold, blue, lifeless, and dead. I cried and held his hand, rubbed his head. I still didn’t even know what to think. I was hoping it was a bad dream I’d wake up from eventually. We said our goodbyes and went home to break the news to my 21 year old daughter, Brian’s sister. We were in complete devastation at this point. We learned pretty quickly what actually took place.
Brian and his girlfriend decided to not go to the concert and ended up at a drug dealer's house that he found on Snapchat. They went there to buy Percocet. There were 4 other minor kids and an adult in the home. These kids are known dealers and offenders and are always in trouble. Brian took one pill that he believed was a Percocet and I know he was trying to alleviate his mouth pain. I believe he went into distress a short time after I spoke with him which was after 8 pm.
There was a video posted of him on Snapchat. He was dead in the video. They were pouring water on him and smacking his face around. An image I will forever be haunted with.
This was posted around 9:30 pm and I got that phone call at 9:45pm. Not one single person in that house, child or adult called for help…they didn’t try to save him. They just went live on Snapchat recording his death.
We found out 6 weeks later that his cause of death was acute fentanyl toxicity and his death was ruled accidental. This was no accident! My son was sold a counterfeit pill that he thought was a Percocet and it was fentanyl. The medical examiner told us he had no other opioid in his system and if fentanyl was not present he would still be alive. It’s the worst pain for a family to go through.
We should not be burying our children. It’s not supposed to be this way. Brian made a terrible choice that night. We didn’t know about fentanyl. We had many conversations about drugs and hanging around the wrong people…but never about fentanyl. Brian didn’t want to die. He didn’t think he’d never come home again.
Our communities need Fentanyl awareness! Parents and children need to be warned that nothing is safe on the streets. If they’re not getting something from a pharmacy…they’re playing Russian roulette with their lives.
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Help us spread awareness and save people.
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-Jennifer Volbrecht
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