When Paul Francs Duffy II got a call that a further particular person was introduced to the unexpected emergency home right after an overdose, he would put on his accommodate and head to the healthcare facility. Duffy, as a peer aid professional, would supply support to survivors — and inspire them to find procedure, just like he had.

But for a time, even as he worked to support other addicts, Duffy was quietly battling with his possess sobriety. 

"That's the insanity of dependancy, appropriate?" Gwen Dudley, Duffy’s lover, instructed WHD News. "Duffy realized from his career how unsafe this was, but he believed he experienced it below manage."

The previous time Dudley noticed Duffy alive, they were being arguing about him heading to get remedy.

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Paul Duffy II was a loving, devoted spouse and father, Gwen Dudley claims. (Courtesy of Gwen Dudley )

"He imagined he might lose his job," she stated. "He was fearful to get to out and confess that he had been utilizing and get enable."

"The stigma, even for people in restoration, it’s strong," Dudley, herself a recovering addict, stated. 

Duffy, 32, died May 2, 2021.

"He handed away thanks to a fentanyl poisoning, which is what I refer to it as, simply because it is," Dudley advised WHD News.

'He saved people's lives'

Due to the fact Duffy's dying, Dudley has fought to close the shame affiliated with dependancy in hopes that much less individuals will silently endure till it's way too late to request aid. She's certain stigma prevented her "soulmate" from trying to find enable.

"Addiction does not discriminate. It doesn't have a face," Dudley claimed. "It is every person."

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Duffy, who went by his last identify, was born and lifted in Annapolis, Maryland the place Dudley and her son however are living. Like so a lot of other folks, Duffy bought hooked on opioids by means of a respectable prescription — he'd in the beginning been specified OxyContin in substantial university for a again personal injury, Dudley explained to WHD News.

But when prescription opioids grew to become unaffordable, Duffy turned to a less expensive and more accessible alternative: heroin. Later on, his drug of choice grew to become cocaine and other amphetamine-like substances, even though he would continue to use opioids to come down from the stimulants. 

Duffy was very first introduced to opioids in superior college when he was prescribed OxyContin for a back injuries.  (Courtesy of Gwen Dudley )

Dudley met Duffy in recovery nearly five yrs ago. He'd been thoroughly clean for about a 12 months, but had intermittent relapses, with his longest interval of sobriety stretching four several years.

"Duffy was charismatic, he was funny," Dudley stated. "He was providing and loving and vivacious and experienced a lust for lifetime that most people will not."

The two swiftly constructed a daily life collectively and experienced their son, Luca, who is now 3 decades old. Though in recovery, Duffy was targeted on physical wellness and was passionate about assisting other individuals.

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Eventually, Duffy acquired a occupation as a peer help specialist for the Anne Arundel County Wellbeing Section in Maryland, a posture established in section of the county's hard work to battle the fentanyl crisis. 

"He saved people's life," Dudley stated. "I was so very pleased of him." 

"He was so surprised to be in a position to do that as a task with anything he'd been as a result of," she added. "Turned his agony into purpose."

'Addiction would not discriminate'

Early in 2021, Duffy's mental well being commenced to convert. The couple's frantic do the job schedules grew to become even busier with a toddler — and Dudley's father died of pancreatic cancer.

Duffy died following he unknowingly took drugs laced with fentanyl. (Courtesy of Gwen Dudley)

"I was unquestionably conscious that Duffy was battling," she claimed. "He was pretty frustrated."

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Duffy sought out a therapist who he in the end did not connect with. Alternatively, he turned to alcoholic beverages, wondering it was a material he experienced control more than. Soon, Duffy was abusing medicine yet again just after almost a few clean a long time.

Dependancy is "never ever what you assume it appears to be like," Dudley mentioned. "It stems from trauma, it stems from mental health problems, it stems from suffering."

"He experimented with to end, but he could not," she advised WHD News. "He was essentially working with versus his will."

Following two months, Duffy promised he would get help following just one particular more score.

But he never arrived dwelling.

Duffy unknowingly purchased medications laced with fentanyl, a artificial opioid 50-100 occasions more robust than morphine, according to the Countrywide Institute of Drug Abuse.

Dudley said Duffy understood about the risks of fentanyl from his position but was "basically employing versus his will." (Courtesy of Gwen Dudley)

"Fentanyl is terrifying," Dudley stated. "It keeps me up at night time. It can make my belly change."

Dudley was headed out with Duffy's mother to glance for her partner when she gained a contact from the hospital. Duffy experienced been located hrs immediately after overdosing and was nevertheless unconscious considering the fact that no just one with him experienced Narcan.  

Duffy was on everyday living assist for three days in advance of medical practitioners declared him mind-dead due to a deficiency of oxygen. He was taken off lifetime aid two times later.  

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She mirrored on Duffy's reluctance to find support. He was afraid he'd be judged for his habit — a little something Dudley considers a sickness.

"To treat this as some kind of moral failing to me is intellect-boggling," she mentioned. "It truly is truly a medical challenge."

"We all want to know what fentanyl is, what it's in, and teach the people today all over us since it's a public wellbeing disaster," Dudley extra.

Drug overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 for the first time in U.S. background in 2021, in accordance to the CDC. Around 64,000 of those fatalities ended up thanks to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. 

"This is coming in over the borders," Dudley explained. "The border procedures are failing."

"And I will not want to make it political, but it is just a truth," she additional.

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Dudley has devoted her time to dismantling stigma surrounding addiction so other individuals having difficulties may possibly seek assistance quicker.   (Courtesy of Gwen Dudley )

'Heroic in his personal way'

Dudley, aiming to conclusion the stigma and make people today additional comfortable about trying to get treatment method, now performs remotely as a nationwide outreach coordinator for Ascend Recovery Center in West Palm Beach. She utilizes TikTok as a system to raise awareness about the potential risks of fentanyl. 

As her son will get more mature, "I'm going to permit him know that his father was unwell," Dudley stated. "That he was heroic in his individual way and saved lives, but that he struggled with this illness and clarify fentanyl to him."

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While she still grieves, Duffy's death has brought Dudley a new feeling of purpose. 

"I would thank him for believing in my power ahead of I did," she told WHD News. "And demonstrating me how to aid people from the heart and not care what other people today feel simply because of the bigger good."

"It can be what lets me now to bring which means to his demise and acquire that spirit with me and assistance other men and women," Dudley mentioned.