WSNIA - The Educator

INFORMATION ♦ EDUCATION ♦ ENFORCEMENT

THE EDUCATOR - Spring 1998

Cover Story: Randy Scollon, Victim of Drug Abuse

Written by Patti Flaherty - M.ED., Educator Acquired Brain Injury Program, G. F Strong Rehab Center, Vancouver Hospital & Health Sciences Center

Randy Scollon is a very special man. He is kind and gentle with a very funny sense of humor and a generous heart. He is a chip off the old block, as they say. His father, Jack Scollon, has the same fine qualities. Randy's dad is dedicating his time both at home and at work to improve the quality of life and services for people living with acquired brain injury. Jack is the Executive Director of the British Columbia Brain Injury Association (BCBIA). He ended his career as a bank manager some time after his eldest son, Clint acquired a brain injury in a motor vehicle accident 10 years before Randy overdosed on crack cocaine. Jack and his wife, Edith have an intimate understanding of the difficult lifelong, and often devastating effects brain injury and disability have on survivors and their families.

The effects of Randy's overdose did not stop in the emergency room, nor did they stop while he was transferred to the intensive care unit. This was just the beginning of a lifelong journey. Drug overdose often ends in the home, in the ambulance, in the emergency room or in the intensive care unit, as people often do not survive the physiological effects the drugs have on their body. Randy did survive, some might say to his detriment but Randy is happy that he is alive and that he has been given a second chance. Randy survived the constant seizures, the massive multiple strokes and the lack of oxygen to his brain (anoxia) when he stopped breathing for some time.

Not unlike other drug overdoses, Randy's free basing crack cocaine resulted in different physiological reactions from the adrenaline and chemical surges in his body. These surges created a rapid and tremendous increase in heart rate and blood pressure and other physical responses that resulted in a few different reactions, which I will briefly and simply attempt to explain. Randy had multiple strokes or bleeding throughout his brain. The increase in heart rate and blood pressure sent blood through his blood vessels with such a tremendous force that the walls of the vessels could not withstand the force, and therefore the walls simply burst.

Secondly, Randy also experienced a huge electrical storm in his brain. Nerve cells or neurons normally fire in an organized and systematic way. During an electrical storm, or in other words constant seizures, the neurons fire at will and in no organized way.

The third way in which Randy's body reacted to the drug overdose was that his cardiovascular and respiratory system shut down and he stopped breathing. For some time, Randy was without oxygen. Our brain can not survive without oxygen and therefore during this period of time the brain tissue started to die, which contributed further to the damage done to his brain. The result of these reactions has left Randy with severe brain damage. He will spend the rest of his life with a constant reminder of the terrible mistakes and lifestyle choices he has made. Drug abuse is in no way a good thing. Randy can attest to that.

Randy has lost two very good friends to heroine and/or cocaine overdoses. In one sense he has lost his own life, as well and is having to build a new life with abilities and experiences that are very different from those he once had. Randy would like to find a way to help teach kids about drugs and how life can change drastically from just one very bad choice. He blames no one else but himself for the choice he has made. Randy has a very positive and upbeat attitude, which has helped him to find a new place in his world, his community and his family. I very much admire Randy's inner strength and quest to find some way to help the anti-drug campaign. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to know Randy and his family and have learned much from their very difficult and continuous journey. Their strength, their love for each other, and their dedication to improve the quality of life for people living with acquired brain injury is an inspiration to me and motivates my work with families and survivors.

Randy's Story

Written By Randy Scollon with Patti Flaherty

I was twelve years old when I smoked marijuana for the first time. My buddy and I traded a 26-ouncer of whiskey that we took out of my parents' liquor cabinet for some dope. There are people who smoke dope once and decide never to smoke again and then there are others who smoke dope but don't do any other drugs other than alcohol. Then there are people like me, who start with marijuana at an early age and before long experiment with lots of other drugs. It seems to me that it usually starts with marijuana. Because of my personal experiences I honestly believe that alcohol and drugs ruin so many peoples' lives.

I feel like I have been given a second chance. Part of me thinks that I should be dead and for a few months, about six years ago my family and friends as well as the doctors in the hospital expected me to die. When I was 25 years old, I overdosed on crack cocaine. I survived massive strokes and constant seizing. But I have been left with severe brain damage that has significantly changed my relationships with my family and friends, my roles as a once productive member of my community-in short my entire life.

Six months of using crack cocaine ended on the night of January 30, 1992. For the first five months I was free basing crack maybe once or twice a month with my girlfriend and a few of my buddies. In January I started doing it everyday. I was feeling like I was getting out of control so I gave my girlfriend what I had left, about 20 grams, and asked her to keep it for me. I was clean for about three days when I decided I would use up what I had and then give it up. My intention was to stop, but who really knows if I would have? I did the 20 grams in two days, constant bingeing and partying. I was completely out of control. My buddy, came over to my place for a beer, saw how freaked out and paranoid I was and took me out for a drive. I started to shake and convulse and eventually I stopped breathing. My buddy gave me mouth to mouth at a stoplight and took me directly to the emergency room. Thankfully we were only a block from Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, British Columbia.

I spent the next twelve months in hospitals. The first four months I was in Surrey Memorial. Most of that time I was in the intensive care unit, hooked up to many machines and tubes which were coming out of all parts of my body. (Please see photos.) I was in a coma for the first three months. The rest of that year I was at the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. For eight months I received rehabilitation from physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, social workers and psychologists.

Now when I meet someone for the first time, they look at me and easily mistake me for a drunk. I have come a long way from the intensive care unit but my life will never be the same. My speech is sort of slurred and slow and I can't use my right hand and arm for very much of anything. It is likely that I will never work full-time again or be legally able to drive a car. It is also likely that I will be on Gain For Disability Benefits for the rest of my life. My apartment is 100% subsidized. I do know that I am one of the luckier ones.

I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I am now 31 and live on my own. I don't have a job but sometimes do casual work for some of my friends. Things would have been so different if I wasn't so stupid, getting myself involved in drugs. I was a commercial fisherman, making a very good living. I would probably be living in the Fraser Valley somewhere with my old girlfriend bringing up a few kids, getting up everyday for work and contributing to my retirement plan, like many other people do at my age. Life could have been very different. No matter how you look at it, drugs are a very bad deal and ruin the lives of many people. Not just those who use and abuse drugs, but also their family and friends who are part of their life. If I could turn back time, if I knew then what I know now, I would have made very different choices and saved myself and my family from heartache, anger, frustration and a whole lot of stress.