“The day my son woke up from an overdose was the day I woke up to what was happening.”
Shawn remembers the day his 18-year-old son, Ian, asked about using cannabis to ease his anxiety. Shawn told him no, as he was strongly against drug use. So, unbeknownst to his parents, Ian started taking benzodiazepines—counterfeit pills supplied by a friend. For months, it seemed to do the trick. He assumed he was taking a safe dose.
In December of 2016, two weeks before Christmas, Ian’s regular supply contained an unexpected and potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.
“I got a call from my wife,” recalls Shawn. “She said, ‘He’s okay, but Ian just overdosed.’”
Shawn’s wife had found Ian in bed with blue lips and no signs of breathing. She had checked on him on a hunch, on a day where she’d usually already be out at work. A trained nurse, she immediately called 911 and began to perform CPR on her firstborn son. Three ambulances responded, because the first two to arrive did not have naloxone on board. Thankfully, the third one did—and was able to reverse Ian’s opioid poisoning.
The day he woke up was the day I woke up to what was really happening,” said Shawn. “There is this hidden, quiet epidemic of teens dying in west-end Ottawa. No one was talking about it in 2016. We thought, ‘it wasn’t our problem.’
Today, Shawn is grateful to share that Ian is healthy and thriving. But he and his family came incredibly close to tragedy—and the incident still has profound ripple effects on them to this day.
“When I reflect back,” said Shawn, “My stigma towards mental health, substance use… my stigma almost cost me my son. And that’s hard. I think we need to be more curious and less judgmental. People need to see themselves in this crisis and understand that anyone can be at risk. There’s no shame in it and you’re not in this alone—every last one of us is at risk.”
Shawn McLaren is an Emergent employee, and we are proud that he has agreed to share his story with us. By talking about his personal and lived experiences, he’s helping to create an environment where those who are suffering can ask for support and, if needed, be prepared with naloxone in case of an opioid overdose emergency. Use as directed.