A grieving mother has paid $2,100 for a billboard after her daughter died because of a pill laced with synthetic opioids.
Patricia Saldivar’s 22-year-old daughter, Cassandra, passed away after taking a pill laced with fentanyl.
She says she wished she could’ve warned her daughter about the dangers of the drug but now she’s doing everything she can to raise awareness.
Cassandra, a mother of a toddler, had recently moved into an apartment in Arlington when she took some painkillers.
Her friends said that the 22-year-old fell asleep on the couch but when they checked on her, she was already cold and had a bloody nose. They immediately called emergency services.
Cassandra’s mother Patricia received a call that her daughter was rushed to a hospital but by the time she got there, her daughter had passed away.
Speaking to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the grieving mother said: “We’re still in shock.”
She told Good Morning America: “I was like, what in the world? I didn’t know it was possible to lace a medication with fentanyl.”
Patricia was not aware that her daughter used drugs, adding she was never arrested or went to rehab.
“I was young once, so I know things happened, but we had a good relationship,” she expressed.
Patricia assumed that if she did not know, other parents and their children also would not know. That is why she wanted to raise awareness and even paid $2,100 for a billboard that features a photo of her beloved daughter.
“1 pill that’s all it took,” it reads. “Fentanyl kills. R.I.P. 06/01/21.”
Speaking to Good Morning America, the grieving mother said: “(Fentanyl deaths) are becoming more and more common and I don’t want anyone to go through the same thing that my family is going through.”
“I wanted to do it to make people aware to not be taking anything that is not prescribed to them,” she added.
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