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Buried in her prom dress: What heroin takes

Crystal Waddell hopes her sister's story can help save lives
Credit: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal
Family photograph of Crystal Waddell, of Northeast, Md., with her late mother Jo and her 38 year-old sister Tammy, who died of a heroin overdose last month.

Tammy Waddell was buried in her senior prom dress.

It was the only dress she owned at age 38, said her sister, Crystal Waddell, and it still fit. Tammy didn't like to part with things, Crystal recalled. She held onto her clothes, her "fur babies," even her addiction, up until her final days.

Waddell died from an accidental heroin overdose on March 9.

"She just wasn't a heroin addict," Crystal said, her eyes welling with tears, explaining that her sister's spiral into addiction stemmed largely from a Percocet prescription for a sprained ankle. "She didn't want anyone else to know what she was going through."

Now, Crystal hopes Tammy's story can help save lives, especially those buying their heroin in Wilmington, Delaware – heroin Crystal believes was laced with something fatal. Her family is still waiting on the toxicology report that will say what caused the overdose.

It is a too-common story – and subsequent fear – for families with loved ones struggling with addiction. The rise in the synthetic painkiller and heroin lookalike fentanyl has spiked the death rate for heroin users in recent years.

In 2016, fentanyl was responsible for 120 deaths, a 186 percent increase from the year before. Last year's numbers are not yet available.

Credit: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal
Family photograph of Crystal Waddell 38 year-old sister Tammy who died of a heroin overdose last month. Her family is trying to finds out the contents of the heroin that killed her and where it came from.

Recently, a batch of fentanyl-laced heroin caused at least a dozen overdoses in Camden, New Jersey, in just one day. That same weekend, Delaware reported 36 overdoses.

In both states, lives were lost, and the rush to stem the death toll began.

"It's not the same heroin that was out here five years ago, 10 years ago," Crystal Waddell said. "It's so much easier to get now, too."

Tammy had dabbled with drugs since her high school days, according to Crystal, but her sister never struggled openly with addiction until she received a prescription for pain pills. Then, self-medication for severe depression became much easier for Tammy.

Credit: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal
Crystal Waddell, of Northeast, Md., holds a picture of her 38 year-old sister Tammy who died last month of a heroin overdose. Her family is trying to finds out the content of the heroin that killed her and where it came from.

Percocet ran a high price in Port Deposit, Maryland, where the girls grew up. Quickly, Tammy's addiction began costing her a "high tab," and eventually, things she loved: her mother's home, which had been in the family for generations, relationships with her loved ones, and a stable job.

Everything got more difficult when addiction was a factor for Tammy, Crystal said, even if her sister couldn't see that for herself.

Credit: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal
Family photograph of Crystal Waddell 38 year-old sister Tammy with her fianc. Tammy died of a heroin overdose last month. Her family is trying to finds out the contents of the heroin that killed her and where it came from.

As of Friday morning, 76 people have died from suspected drug overdoses this year, according to the state Department of Health and Social Services.

The state Division of Forensic Science's 2017 report is not yet finished, but within it should be a clearer breakdown of what led to the deaths of 345 Delawareans. Typically, this report breaks down which deaths are attributable to heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and other primary causes.

This public health epidemic has state and national officials scrambling to provide long-term solutions to those struggling with addiction and their family members directly affected by the disease.

This past week, state Attorney General Matt Denn urged those attending the Delaware Healthy Mothers and Infants Consortium Summit to support bringing more treatment facilities to the First State. He has been calling on the state Legislature to allocate more money to expand sober living and inpatient treatment beds locally, and this week, stressed how this health crisis is affecting infants, too.

"Some people can get well on their own just by seeing a doctor, but a lot of people can’t," Denn said. "And right now as a state we have 11,000 people battling addiction and only 200 beds in the entire state for them to have any type of supervised living situation."

For too many, Denn and others stress, it falls upon the efforts of family members and loved ones to ensure those struggling with addiction stay alive.

Tammy's longtime boyfriend – a man Crystal refers to as her brother-in-law – literally put Tammy in his rig and drove her in his tractor-trailer across the country with him while he worked. The two were inseparable, and living on the road with him kept her from using, Crystal remembered.

In many ways, it kept Tammy alive.

"She had the 'It can't happen to me' mentality," Crystal said, a mindset that ultimately turned fatal.

When Tammy finally came back to the region after more than a year, she got a new job – and started taking Adderall from a coworker. The spiral began again, and before long, Tammy was back to using heroin.

The situation worsened when Tammy and Crystal's mother died last year. Tammy, already unable to handle crisis, couldn't stand watching her mother let go.

They buried their mother on the day before Tammy's birthday.

Credit: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal
Family photograph of Crystal Waddell, of Northeast, Md., with her late mother Jo and her 38 year-old sister Tammy, who died of a heroin overdose last month.

Though Tammy never injected heroin, the drug still found a way to take her life. She died while on the phone with her longtime boyfriend. He thought the call just dropped, Crystal said.

Now, Crystal hopes that the drugs found in Tammy's system can be traced back to the dealer who sold her the fatal mix in Wilmington. Delaware law allows prosecutors to charge a drug dealer with the death of a person to whom they sold, if the drugs can be linked.

"More states need a statute," Crystal stressed.

For families like hers, it may be the only way to bring about justice.

But nothing will bring back Tammy, a loss that Crystal feels every day, especially when coupled with the death of her mother. Raising two boys on her own, Crystal also fears for her own children who see the effects and reach of heroin in North East, Maryland, daily.

From time to time, she hears them talking about heroin. She hopes they understand how dangerous it can be – and how much it can take from you.

Now, a large printed picture of Tammy and many smaller photos dotting posters made for Tammy's funeral are all Crystal has left.

"She would stand up to anyone and tell you exactly what you needed to hear," Crystal said of her sister, "but she would clean your house when she was done. She loved cleaning. ... She was much more a bad ass than I ever was."

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