Homeless in Syracuse, Evan battles drugs, gun violence, fellow addicts and the cold streets in hopes of recovering from heroin addiction.
Evan, at age two, began reaching for the gymnastics rings. He wanted to follow in his sibling's footsteps.
Soon, his talent became obvious and he was deemed the better of the two. Good wasn't a word someone would use to describe his talent, it was his calling.
By age 12, he needed knee surgery. After that, there were pain killers.
Even with a damaged knee, his coach kept pushing him — leading to more pain killers, not only for the pain, but for a psychological use.
A Central New York man recounts his struggle with heroin addiction and staying sober.
On a crisp January night, *Brent trudged through the snow, carrying his flat-screen TV to trade for cash. Hours later, he stood in his bare apartment, alone, with his newly purchased heroin needles.
After a marathon of doping through the night, Brent decided that he could not continue down this path and called the Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare for detoxification services. Since the morning of Jan. 25, 2015, Brent has been clean.
Lon Fricano shares the rush he gets from responding to emergency calls for nearly 50 years.
Lon Fricano, 64, has been shot at twice. He’s been in burning buildings and almost gotten stabbed. He’s been chased by street gangs and attacked with baseball bats. Recently, he fought alongside six firemen, three police officers and two ambulance crews to subdue a person violently high on the drug known as “bath salts."
A self-described “adrenaline junkie,” the veteran paramedic said he loves the rush.
Clinical psychologist Elizabeth Berry shares what makes her tick: spending time with family, helping patients and always learning something new.
Her formal title is Dr. Elizabeth Berry, Ph.D., but she calls herself the "Bath Salts Queen."
Berry, a 60-year-old chemical dependency treatment specialist at Crouse Hospital, changes the lyrics to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” when she sings it to herself. “Whenever I put in ‘Bath Salts Queen,’ it makes me laugh,” she said. This is a lighter moment in Berry’s dedication to educating the community about dangerous drugs.