Family of Roanoke County woman who died from opioid overdose: "We want to save lives"
The Gilbert family poses at their home with a photo of Jordan. Photo: Erica Yoon
The Roanoke Times | Nov. 13, 2017
By Amy Friedenberger
Danny and Wendy Gilbert were in Alexandria on a Sunday night in March to see the Righteous Brothers perform when they got a text from one of their neighbors. The police were outside their Roanoke County home.
The couple asked the neighbor to have an officer call them.
“I don’t want to have to tell you this over the phone,” the officer said.
Their daughter, 27-year-old Jordan Gilbert, had died from what appeared to be an overdose. Police found her at a home in Vinton on March 26, dead for nearly 10 hours.
“She had her issues with addiction, but did I ever think she was going to die from it?” Jordan’s father said. “We may have mentioned it, but I didn’t think it would ever get that far.”
As opioid abuse and deaths continue to ravage the commonwealth, the Gilberts are speaking out about Jordan’s death whenever they can in the hope that they can reduce the stigma and misinformation about addiction and help families cope with what they’ve been going through for a decade.
On Tuesday, Danny Gilbert will be part of a panel discussion in Botetourt County about the opioid crisis. He spoke last month at a similar event in Roanoke about his daughter — known as Joey to her friends, Jo Jo to her father.
“Do I want to do this?” he said. “Hell, no, because it’s not easy, and it’s not something you want to keep reliving. But I feel like I need to because we want to save lives.”
Rising toll
Opioid overdoses kill more people in Virginia every year than guns or car crashes and are on pace to kill more people this year than in past years. By the end of 2017, opioid overdoses are expected to claim the lives of nearly 1,200 people in Virginia, according to the state’s chief medical examiner’s office.
“This can happen to anyone,” said Wendy Gilbert, Jordan’s stepmother. “It doesn’t matter your race or socioeconomic status. It’s a disease.”
Potent street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl have overtaken prescription painkillers as the deadliest opioids. Last year, fentanyl killed about 620 people, an increase of 176 percent over the year before. Heroin was responsible for nearly 450 deaths last year. Prescription painkillers have claimed the lives of 400 to 500 people each year for the past 10 years.
“There are only three options when you have this disease,” said Jordan’s sister, Britney Chitwood. “You die, you go to prison or you get clean.”
The drug epidemic has stressed police departments, fire and rescue departments and hospitals.
In Vinton, where Jordan Gilbert died from a methadone overdose — a drug for which she didn’t have a prescription — the First Aid Crew has administered more naloxone than heart attack medicine this year, Chief Wayne Guffey said.
Crew members have used naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, to bring back a driver who shot up heroin, then crashed his SUV, Guffey said. At three different times in one day, three people overdosed in the same house. Guffey said he’s had to administer naloxone to the same two people on two different occasions.
“One guy came back and said, ‘Oh, you again,’ ” Guffey said.
Not everyone revived by naloxone agrees to go to the hospital, he said.
Roanoke leads Virginia in the highest rate of emergency room visits for opioid overdoses between June and October, according to data collected by the Virginia Department of Health.
Guffey has been on the First Aid Crew for 32 years, so he’s used to seeing the disturbing things that can happen to the body. But there are still some deaths that shake him.
“When you got a beautiful young girl, her whole life ahead of her, and she’s there without a heartbeat because she OD’d on something stupid, you ask yourself, ‘Why?’ ” he said.
Demon of addiction
The Gilberts began immediately to share Jordan’s story about her struggle with addiction, starting with her obituary.
“She fought hard against the demon of addiction and God has delivered her to a place of unconditional love, laughter and no more pain,” the obituary read.
Since then, Danny Gilbert has spoken at events focused on educating the public about the risks and struggles of opioid addiction.
Salem Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Bowers, chairman of the Roanoke Valley Heroin Task Force, a group focused on education and prevention, said voices like the Gilberts’ are valuable in making an emotional connection with parents.
“We respect these people who come in to talk,” Bowers said. “People see that this is not the image of drug use they envision, with rough drug users in the street. It’s also nice people from nice families.”
Jordan Gilbert grew up in the Cave Spring area and graduated from Hidden Valley High School. She’s the middle child of three of Danny Gilbert and Linda Tackett, who now lives in Abingdon.
Danny Gilbert, who’s retired from Norfolk Southern, said his daughter’s drug use started with marijuana, then expanded to pills such as Xanax. Eventually, she was hooked on heroin. She stole the pain pills a doctor prescribed her father after a surgery. They fought constantly, but her family said it was the addiction that made her behave the way she did.
Jordan went to various facilities for treatment and tried medicines aimed at blocking the effects of and reducing cravings for drugs such as heroin. Nothing stuck. Before her death, she was hoping to get clean long enough so she could enroll in a recovery program in North Carolina.
“I spent a fortune, but I’d rather spend money to put her in a facility than spend money to bury her,” Danny Gilbert said.
The Gilberts are scheduled to get trained on how to administer naloxone next month, and they’re advocating others do so as well. A close friend of the family, Melinda Chitwood, got trained a few months ago.
“Everybody knows somebody affected by this, and if they think they don’t, it’s just because they haven’t realized it yet,” Chitwood said. “It’s best to be prepared.”
There’s a stigma attached to addiction. Because of that, the Gilberts have met privately with others who have gone through something similar with a loved one.
“We’re not the only family in the Roanoke Valley who has lost someone,” Danny Gilbert said. “I wish my daughter hadn’t died, but I’m not ashamed of it. If talking about it helps somebody, then that’s why we’re doing it.”
By Amy Friedenberger
Danny and Wendy Gilbert were in Alexandria on a Sunday night in March to see the Righteous Brothers perform when they got a text from one of their neighbors. The police were outside their Roanoke County home.
The couple asked the neighbor to have an officer call them.
“I don’t want to have to tell you this over the phone,” the officer said.
Their daughter, 27-year-old Jordan Gilbert, had died from what appeared to be an overdose. Police found her at a home in Vinton on March 26, dead for nearly 10 hours.
“She had her issues with addiction, but did I ever think she was going to die from it?” Jordan’s father said. “We may have mentioned it, but I didn’t think it would ever get that far.”
As opioid abuse and deaths continue to ravage the commonwealth, the Gilberts are speaking out about Jordan’s death whenever they can in the hope that they can reduce the stigma and misinformation about addiction and help families cope with what they’ve been going through for a decade.
On Tuesday, Danny Gilbert will be part of a panel discussion in Botetourt County about the opioid crisis. He spoke last month at a similar event in Roanoke about his daughter — known as Joey to her friends, Jo Jo to her father.
“Do I want to do this?” he said. “Hell, no, because it’s not easy, and it’s not something you want to keep reliving. But I feel like I need to because we want to save lives.”
Rising toll
Opioid overdoses kill more people in Virginia every year than guns or car crashes and are on pace to kill more people this year than in past years. By the end of 2017, opioid overdoses are expected to claim the lives of nearly 1,200 people in Virginia, according to the state’s chief medical examiner’s office.
“This can happen to anyone,” said Wendy Gilbert, Jordan’s stepmother. “It doesn’t matter your race or socioeconomic status. It’s a disease.”
Potent street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl have overtaken prescription painkillers as the deadliest opioids. Last year, fentanyl killed about 620 people, an increase of 176 percent over the year before. Heroin was responsible for nearly 450 deaths last year. Prescription painkillers have claimed the lives of 400 to 500 people each year for the past 10 years.
“There are only three options when you have this disease,” said Jordan’s sister, Britney Chitwood. “You die, you go to prison or you get clean.”
The drug epidemic has stressed police departments, fire and rescue departments and hospitals.
In Vinton, where Jordan Gilbert died from a methadone overdose — a drug for which she didn’t have a prescription — the First Aid Crew has administered more naloxone than heart attack medicine this year, Chief Wayne Guffey said.
Crew members have used naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, to bring back a driver who shot up heroin, then crashed his SUV, Guffey said. At three different times in one day, three people overdosed in the same house. Guffey said he’s had to administer naloxone to the same two people on two different occasions.
“One guy came back and said, ‘Oh, you again,’ ” Guffey said.
Not everyone revived by naloxone agrees to go to the hospital, he said.
Roanoke leads Virginia in the highest rate of emergency room visits for opioid overdoses between June and October, according to data collected by the Virginia Department of Health.
Guffey has been on the First Aid Crew for 32 years, so he’s used to seeing the disturbing things that can happen to the body. But there are still some deaths that shake him.
“When you got a beautiful young girl, her whole life ahead of her, and she’s there without a heartbeat because she OD’d on something stupid, you ask yourself, ‘Why?’ ” he said.
Demon of addiction
The Gilberts began immediately to share Jordan’s story about her struggle with addiction, starting with her obituary.
“She fought hard against the demon of addiction and God has delivered her to a place of unconditional love, laughter and no more pain,” the obituary read.
Since then, Danny Gilbert has spoken at events focused on educating the public about the risks and struggles of opioid addiction.
Salem Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Bowers, chairman of the Roanoke Valley Heroin Task Force, a group focused on education and prevention, said voices like the Gilberts’ are valuable in making an emotional connection with parents.
“We respect these people who come in to talk,” Bowers said. “People see that this is not the image of drug use they envision, with rough drug users in the street. It’s also nice people from nice families.”
Jordan Gilbert grew up in the Cave Spring area and graduated from Hidden Valley High School. She’s the middle child of three of Danny Gilbert and Linda Tackett, who now lives in Abingdon.
Danny Gilbert, who’s retired from Norfolk Southern, said his daughter’s drug use started with marijuana, then expanded to pills such as Xanax. Eventually, she was hooked on heroin. She stole the pain pills a doctor prescribed her father after a surgery. They fought constantly, but her family said it was the addiction that made her behave the way she did.
Jordan went to various facilities for treatment and tried medicines aimed at blocking the effects of and reducing cravings for drugs such as heroin. Nothing stuck. Before her death, she was hoping to get clean long enough so she could enroll in a recovery program in North Carolina.
“I spent a fortune, but I’d rather spend money to put her in a facility than spend money to bury her,” Danny Gilbert said.
The Gilberts are scheduled to get trained on how to administer naloxone next month, and they’re advocating others do so as well. A close friend of the family, Melinda Chitwood, got trained a few months ago.
“Everybody knows somebody affected by this, and if they think they don’t, it’s just because they haven’t realized it yet,” Chitwood said. “It’s best to be prepared.”
There’s a stigma attached to addiction. Because of that, the Gilberts have met privately with others who have gone through something similar with a loved one.
“We’re not the only family in the Roanoke Valley who has lost someone,” Danny Gilbert said. “I wish my daughter hadn’t died, but I’m not ashamed of it. If talking about it helps somebody, then that’s why we’re doing it.”
