Sue Fischer says she doesn’t want other parents to have to go through what her family has gone through. Fischer’s son Kevin was living in Seattle when he died in 2020 at the age of 39 after taking Ocycontin pills laced with fentanyl. “Kevin was born and raised in Fond du Lac, played in band in high school, was a regular kid. He moved out to Washington as an adult. Kevin had used drugs, but fentanyl came into the picture, so the drugs he took were laced with fentanyl and it killed him,” Fischer told AM 1170s Between the Lines program. After her son died Fischer and her daughter held a fundraiser to bring awareness to the opioid crisis. The event raised more than $10,000 to help the county health department buy narcan, fentanyl test strips, a cpr mask and information on resources. “This isn’t go out and take a pill and get sick. This is go out and take a pill and die.” Fond du Lac County Public Health Officer Kim Mueller says her office provides fentanyl test strips at no cost and is working to get narcan kits distributed throughout the community. “If we can save just one life with getting this in the hands of individuals, to me it’s exactly what we should be doing,” Mueller told WFDL news. Fischer says she wants people to know that the fentanyl crisis is here and she wants parents to talk with their children. At least 20 states have legalized the test strips in a bid to combat rising deaths from the ever-present opioid crisis.
