Hi, my name is Tony Patton otherwise known as T.J. I am 26 years old and for now I am stuck in a wheelchair because of my mistakes as a teenager. It was hard growing up in a broken household and I turned anywhere I could for a distraction from my everyday life.
I started experimenting with drugs and alcohol at a young age as many troubled kids do. It was great to escape from reality and forget about my problems. My brother was the first person to introduce me to marijuana when I was 13 years old. At the time, it seemed like the coolest thing in the world! I felt relaxed and it seemed like all my problems had disappeared. On the surface I was calm, cool, and collected, but underneath I was unhappy. I didn’t realize I was starting a journey that would almost end my life completely and am very lucky to be able to share my story with all of you today.
It was difficult to grow up without a mother around, and even more difficult when we were placed into foster care. My first foster parents treated me well but being around the right people wasn’t enough to stop me from doing drugs. At the young age of 13, I put in my first $20 for some weed. I rolled a joint and began my journey to where I am now.
When I was 16, I ended up in a protective custody facility. While there, I met a girl named Jennifer. She was from Louisiana and wanted to move back. There was nothing keeping me here so I went with her. I was drinking heavily and selling marijuana to friends and neighbors. Selling marijuana eventually led me to sell other drugs like cocaine, ecstasy and prescription pills such as Oxycontin. At this point, I started using my own stash instead of selling it. I was in a lot of debt with the dealers and one even put a gun to my head. So instead of killing me he beat me up and robbed me. I didn’t stop selling drugs or using them. It felt like I was invincible.
About a week later, after being robbed, I took two methadone pills, a half bottle of Jagermeister, a couple of ecstasy pills, a couple of Xanax bars, and smoked about a half ounce of marijuana all at once. Soon after, my neighbors were banging on the door of my upstairs condo because my music was too loud but I was unconscious and could not answer. When my girlfriend came home from her shift she found me blue-faced and unresponsive. I died for a few seconds. The paramedics used a defibrillator and brought me back to life. Next thing I knew I was looking at bright white lights and thought I was in heaven but it was only the ceiling lights of the hospital hallway.
Between being in the Louisiana Memorial Hospital and a California Hospital I was in a coma for six months. The state of Louisiana wanted to pull the plug and put my organs in a donor list. But being a California resident they had no control over what happened to my body. When I woke up I was scared and didn’t know where I was. I soon found out I was not able to walk because I received a brain stem injury which is loss of oxygen to the brain caused by the drug overdose.
I remained in the hospital for about three more years. I even had my 18th birthday in the hospital. I was relieved to finally leave the hospital and move to an adult residential facility, in Bakersfield, CA, where I’ve lived since 2006.
If you can take anything away from my experiences the one thing I hope you all learn is that although drugs appears to be fun and helps you cope with whatever you are going through, the truth is, drugs will ultimately destroy you, your family, loved ones, and great opportunities and some of you have probably experienced what I’ve gone through.
Although I’m all alone as far as family is concerned, I have some staff at home that are good friends with me. They take me out to play at video arcades and to the movies. I also work at an agency called Business Builders that helps those like me in areas of self- improvement skills, public speaking so I can share my story to help others in hopes of changing their lives. I just want all of you to know that drugs are very controlling and once you get to a certain point it’s very hard to let go. Take it from a guy who has used and abused most drugs. Drugs aren’t prejudiced they don’t care what race, religion, age, or gender you are they will take over and destroy what you love. I lost my father, grandfather, brother, best friend and his father all because of drugs and drinking. I wish you readers all the best in your recovery. Thank you for reading, Tony Patton.
