Columbia family shares story of son’s fatal fentanyl overdose
COLUMBIA, Mo (KMIZ)
The Drug Enforcement Administration announced on Tuesday that 21,218 pounds of old, unwanted, and expired medications were collected in Missouri during National Prescription Drug Take Day, to combat the opioid crisis.
Opioid overdoses account for 70% of deaths of adults aged 18-44 in Missouri, the leading cause of death in the state, with fentanyl being one of the most fatal.
Last year, 2,178 people lost their lives from drug overdoses in Missouri which was a 2.3% increase from 2021.
Earlier this summer, ABC 17 News caught up Columbia family of Aaron Jones, who died of a fentanyl overdose on June 30. Aaron's parents described him as a "goofball" and "full of joy." He was also a sports fanatic, especially for basketball and football.
"He was so good to his dad, just real [polite to me always, and was just a beautiful beautiful soul," his father, Robert, said.
"He wanted to help people. He loved his friends, loved his sisters he hung tough with them and protected them at any cost," his mother, Heather Reams, added.
Aaron Jones was 17 years old when he got in a car wreck that required his spleen to be taken out. He was prescribed Percocet to help ease the pain. Soon after, he developed an opioid addiction and was eventually introduced to fentanyl without even knowing it.
“When he first started, he thought he was doing Percocets,” Reams said.
Eventually, things started to take a turn for the worse.
“It was a while before we knew he was on something bad and by then he was already hooked,” Reams said.
His parents tried everything. They put him in a 20-day treatment program at Phoenix, took him to the Burell Access Center and even had to kick him out of the house on multiple occasions.
“He didn’t want to be on it. He’d always be like I need to go to treatment and I need to get back off this. He knew it was either that or death he wasn’t stupid,” Robert Jones said.
Aaron was arrested multiple times due to his drug use. But despite his best efforts, he was unable to kick his addiction. On June 29 Heather woke up to the sound of her son in the living room.
“I kept hearing a noise in the middle of the night the girls were already gone and I woke up at one point the next time I saw him he was in the room high stumbling around in this other bedroom here,” Reams said.
Reams decided to call the police. When officers arrived they found drugs on the ground. Out of concern for Aaron, they called paramedics who checked his vitals but did not find anything serious.
“They walked him outside and I told him I loved him, and I’ll see them later and to be careful,” Reams said. “He said alright Mom. I saw him walk down the sidewalk and that was the last time I saw him alive.”
The next morning, Reams woke up to the sound of someone banging on her door. It was MU Campus security.
“I opened the door and the man guy said, ‘I was just wondering if this guy was OK out here. I drove by a couple of times and he is still here.’ And it was Aaron and he was like this on the ground on the chair out here,” she said.
She immediately rushed into action, doing chest compression, CPR, and scrambling to grab to give him multiple doses of Narcan -- a nasal spray that can help people who are overdosing on an opioid -- before paramedics arrived
“I’m sitting here bawling, broke down and I’ll never forget it. The cop looked at me dead in my face and said your son is dead,” Reams said.
Aaron was just 19 years old.
“I want people to know that he is a person and he’s not just an addict,” Heather said. "He had his whole life. Didn’t even have kids didn’t even get married.”
