'My world was destroyed': Chris Didier reveals moment he found his son Zachary dead from fentanyl overdose
PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Air Force Veteran Chris Didier opened up about the traumatizing moment he found his son Zachary dead from a fentanyl overdose in his bedroom, lying on his desk and out of breath. The vet and his wife, Laura, are currently raising awareness on the ills of the drug and to prevent parents and children from going through the pain they went through.
Zachary, 17, was a soccer-loving teenager who was applying to colleges for further studies. However, on December 27, 2020, tragedy struck when he he became one of many fentanyl crisis victims, after purchasing the drugs over Snapchat, as per Daily Mail.
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With high hopes for the future, Zach was known at his school as a musician and an athlete. Revealing the distressing moments of his son's death, Didier, who is now a commercial pilot, describes the shock he got on finding his son. He told Washington Post, "As I got within two feet of him, I didn’t feel what I would normally feel. When you approach a dead body, there is a void there, and I’d never sensed that before, and that’s when my world was destroyed."
Shocked out of his wits, Didier immediately asked his other son to dial 911 while he pulled Zach out of his chair and performed CPR. The desperate father refused to listen to the paramedics tell him that it was too late and tried to take their defibrillator, attempting to save his son. He reportedly screamed and curled up on the floor when his son was taken away.
Our prayers and condolences go out the the Didier family. Zach was an outstanding young man and The track and field community will miss him immensely. My best memory of Zach is his willingness to do whatever we needed, including volunteering during the summer to fix hurdles. pic.twitter.com/Zkmea283ha
— Whitney Track & Field (@whitney__TF) December 30, 2020
Letting the first responders inspect their son's bedroom, the Didiers waited outside. they had no idea that Zachary used drugs as he was actively involved in various activities and was well-known in the community. He chose to lead the musical theatre production at his school and also worked hard to become an Eagle Scout.
Commemorating and honoring Zach at his high school, two scholarships have been set up on GoFundMe. The page reads, "In late December, Zach met a stranger through Snapchat and purchased what he was told was a prescription pill. Instead, he was sold a fake pill containing a lethal amount of fentanyl. He was poisoned and had no chance. Zach was found the next day, unresponsive in his bedroom. A discovery like this is the worst nightmare any parent could experience."
According to Daily Mail, in 2021, fentanyl was the cause of 55% of drug overdose deaths in the US. Didier said, "Our country kicked off a 20-year global war on terror, and much of that fight was in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was dangerous, it was lethal, and I know, because I was there and I lost a lot of friends. We had a death rate of almost one American life lost every single day," adding, "But fentanyl has a death rate about 200 times worse. How is this not a bigger priority in our country, in our government?"