Sister Shares Late Radnor Man's Opiate Addiction Story With PA Legislators

The sister of a late Radnor man shared her brother's story with Pennsylvania legislators recently after Gov. Tom Wolf signed several bills into law that are aimed at quelling the opiate addiction epidemic in the state.

Liv Roderick talked about her brother Clark Roderick, who died at 31 years old from a Xanax and heroin overdose.

She said Clark's addiction began after he was injured in an accident when he was 25.

"When Clark was 25 he was in an accident that severely hurt his back. Andso begins a tale that represents the vast majority of these tragedies. He was prescribed powerful painkillers, got hooked and was never the same," Roderick said. "The next six years was an endless chase for more drugs and higher highs. He was a heroin addict in less than 18 months."

She went on to say she and her family worked to help Clark fight the addiction, including sending him to rehab several times, attending family counseling sessions, and learning as much about addiction as they could to help Clark.

"The periods of sobriety were heaven for everyone and always gave us hope that he’d pull through and that he’d beat his demons," she said. "We let him know at every opportunity that we loved him. We did everything we could to help him with the information we had."

Clark died on Dec. 17, 2015, the day he was supposed to arrive in Radnor for the holidays.

"I’m here to tell you that if you haven’t been personally affected by this plague then you will be if we don’t all fight back. If it can happen to Clark it can happen to anyone," Roderick said. "He got sick and lost his way and we as a society ultimately failed him because so much is still left unknown about how to best address these thousands and thousands of cases."

"No one is safe. We need to improve our policies, our laws and our systems and what we’ve seen here today is a step in the right direction," Roderick said.

Watch Roderick's entire speech in the video below:

Image via Shutterstock, video via Gov. Tom Wolf YouTube