http://syn2.thecanadianpress.com:8080/mrss/feed/fcf7391a2f354311807f0501c16bde6a MSN - AP World Copyright © 2010-2018 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved. http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Sun, 06 Jul 2025 21:20:07 +0000 http://syn2.thecanadianpress.com:8080/mrss/feed/fcf7391a2f354311807f0501c16bde6a/0b76d6a99a7f47dfbcba7733bd2ca3ac After a hard-fought battle, the overdose rate in Huntington, West Virginia, plummeted – until the coronavirus pandemic arrived and undid much of the local response team's work. (April 8) 0b76d6a99a7f47dfbcba7733bd2ca3ac Thu, 08 Apr 2021 14:12:29 +0000 SHOTLIST:RESTRICTION SUMMARY: PART MUST CREDIT CARTER FAMILYASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 16 March 20211. Joshua Messer walks out of his garage toward members of the Quick Response Team, UPSOUND (English): "How y'all doing today?"2. SOUNDBITE (English) Joshua Messer, overdose survivor:"The paramedics were all around me, and I was blue. They said I was dead – or I ODed."ASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 15 March 20213. A Quick Response Team member gets in a vehicle and closes the door4. Elevated look at Huntington ASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 17 March 20215. A train passes by a "Dead End" road signASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 15 March 20216. QRT leader Larrecsa Cox drives, a dispatcher comes through the on-board radio to relay that an overdose has been reported++PARTIALLY COVERED++7. SOUNDBITE (English) Larrecsa Cox, Quick Response Team:"Regardless of COVID, people are still out there overdosing. Like, the world is still going."8. Cox begins driving behind another QRT vehicle, UPSOUND (English): "Alright, I'll follow you."9. The other QRT vehicle on the move10. Various of Cox and the team at workASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 16 March 202111. Various of Cox and another QRT member speaking with Messer++PARTIALLY COVERED++12. SOUNDBITE (English) Joshua Messer, overdose survivor:"A lot of people started using drugs more, because they're trapped in their house. There's really nothing to do ." 13. Cox speaks with Messer, UPSOUND (English): "At least one month in some kind of program."ASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 15 March 2021++PARTIALLY COVERED++14. SOUNDBITE (English) Larrecsa Cox, Quick Response Team:"I mean, that just really put a ringer in everything, especially with trying to connect with people that did, in fact, overdose." ASSOCIATED PRESSDate and location unknown15. Animation showing number of overdose deathsASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 16 March 202116. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Michael Kilkenny, Cabell-Huntington Health Department CEO:"This was all ground we had gained. We're going to have to re-take that ground." ASSOCIATED PRESSMilton, West Virginia – 16 March 202117. SOUNDBITE (English) Lola Carter, daughter died after battle with addiction:"It was hell for us."VALIDATED UGC - MUST CREDIT CARTER FAMILY++USER GENERATED CONTENT: This has been authenticated by AP based on the following validation checks:++Checked by regional experts against known locations and events++Consistent with independent AP reporting++Cleared for use by all AP clients by content creator Carter Family++Mandatory on-screen credit Carter FamilyDate and location unknown18. STILLS of Kayla CarterASSOCIATED PRESSMilton, West Virginia – 16 March 2021++PARTIALLY COVERED++19. SOUNDBITE (English) Lola Carter, daughter died after battle with addiction:"Why would God do that to you? Why would he give you back your kid after 12 years for, you know, a month and a half, almost two months or whatever and then take 'em away?"ASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 16 March 202120. Various of Ashley Ellis displaying a locket that contains the ashes of her fiancé, Brandon Williams21. SOUNDBITE (English) Ashley Ellis, recovering drug addict:"I think losing Brandon has been, quite possibly, what's going to save my life."22. Various of EllisASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 15 March 202123. Cox chats with a woman during a QRT visit24. SOUNDBITE (English) Larrecsa Cox, Quick Response Team:"You either get clean or you die. Sad reality."ASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 19 March 202125. A team member knocks on a door26. Cox walks down the stairs of a homeASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 16 March 2021++PARTIALLY COVERED++27. SOUNDBITE (English) Joshua Messer, overdose survivor:"I'm sitting here talking to you right now. So, I'm here. I made it."ASSOCIATED PRESSHuntington, West Virginia – 17 March 2021++MUTE++28. Drone shot of the team on footSTORYLINE:As the COVID pandemic killed more than a half-million Americans, it also quietly inflamed what was before it the country's greatest public health crisis: addiction. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 88,000 people died of drug overdoses in the 12 months ending in August 2020 -- the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a year. Huntington, West Virginia, once was ground-zero for the addiction epidemic. But after a hard-fought battle, the overdose rate plummeted. Until the pandemic arrived and undid much of the hard work. The devastation is an indictment of the public health infrastructure, which failed to fight the dueling crises of COVID and addiction, said Dr. Michael Kilkenny, who runs the health department in Cabell County, which includes Huntington.  Simultaneously, Kilkenny said, disruptions in health care exacerbated the collateral consequences of drug use -- HIV, Hepatitis C, deadly bacterial infections that chew flesh to the bone and cause people in their 20s to have open-heart surgeries. There were 38 HIV infections tied to injection drug use last year in the county of fewer than 100,000 people -- more than in 2019 in New York City.  "This was all ground we had gained. And now we're going to have to re-take that ground," Kilkenny said. On the afternoon of August 15, 2016, 28 people overdosed in four hours in Huntington. By 2017, the county had an average of six overdoses a day. They couldn't ignore it anymore. The county got two grants and selected Larrecsa (leh-REE'-seh) Cox, a paramedic, to lead a crew of addiction specialists, faith leaders and police officers who crisscross the county, tracking down people who overdosed. If the people they find are ready for treatment, they get them there. If they aren't, they give them the overdose-reversal medication naloxone and other supplies to try to help them survive in the meantime.Joshua Messer, who welcomed Cox and her team after he recently overdosed, recognizes that recovery is a gradual process."I'm sitting here talking to you right now," he said.The CDC estimates that across the country overdose deaths increased nearly 27% in the 12-month span ending in August 2020. In West Virginia, fatal overdoses increased by more than 38%.  Report after report arrived on Cox's desk. In October, she saw a name of a woman she knew well and lost her breath: Kayla Carter.  Carter had a brilliant mind for math and loved the stars. Her family always thought she'd grow up to work for NASA.  Instead, she was addicted to opioids by the time she turned 20.  "It was hell for us," said her mother, Lola.  Kayla Carter overdosed dozens of times. At 30 years old, she already walked with a cane that she painted her favorite color, pink. Infection coursed through her body. She had Hepatitis C and HIV.  Carter was hospitalized last summer with endocarditis, a heart infection from using dirty needles. Her parents stood at her bedside and thought she looked 100 years old. They cried all the way home.  She stayed clean when she got out of the hospital. She gained 30 pounds. She said she was sorry for all she'd missed: babies born, birthday parties, funerals. They thought they had her back.  Then she stopped answering calls. Her mother went to her apartment and found her dead on her bathroom floor.  They are still waiting for the medical examiner's report, but her father Jeff, a retired paramedic, would rather never see it. It brings him comfort to think she died from complications from her surgeries, and not that she relapsed and overdosed.  "Why would God do that to you? Why would he give you back your kid after 12 years for, you know, a month and a half, almost two months or whatever and then take 'em away," Lola Carter asked.Ashley Ellis wears a locket that contains the ashes of her fiance, Brandon Williams, who died of an overdose late last year.Now, Ellis is fighting to stay sober and be there for her two kids. "I think losing Brandon has been, quite possibly, what's going to save my life," Ellis said.Cox and her team plan to keep heading into the streets each day, fighting to save the Kayla Carters and Brandon Williamses of the world."You either get clean or you die. Sad reality," Cox said.===========================================================Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com(ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. After a hard-fought battle, the overdose rate in Huntington, West Virginia, plummeted – until the coronavirus pandemic arrived and undid much of the local response team's work. (April 8) COVID halts Huntington's addiction crisis progress