A grieving Calgary mother has shared a heart-wrenching photo of her son dying in hospital from a suspected fentanyl overdose as a warning to others about the dangers of the lethal drug.

In a Facebook post uploaded on April 19, Sherri Kent said her 22-year-old son Michael “was not an addict.”

She added, “he made a mistake that cost him his life."

Michael overdosed after he took a line of drugs in the bathroom of a Kelowna, B.C. corner market on March 14. He died on March 21 after he was taken off of life support.

In the photo uploaded on Facebook a week ago, Kent can be seen lying beside her son on his hospital bed as he is intubated and appears to be unconscious.

Kent told CTV Calgary on Tuesday that she decided to upload the photo of her son in the hospital to raise awareness about the spread of fentanyl in Canada.

She asked that Facebook users share the photo so that others could see the drug’s impact on families. By Tuesday morning, Kent’s photo had been shared more than 100,000 times.

Michael was given the drugs by a man he hardly knew, his mother said. After he overdosed, Kent said her son was left alone in the bathroom for 20 to 30 minutes before anyone found him. By that time, Michael had already gone into cardiac arrest because of the overdose.

Kent said she immediately drove out to Kelowna to be with her son in the hospital when she received the news.

Although he was a recreational marijuana user, Kent said her son never did any hard drugs.

"My son was such a fun loving boy and he wasn't ready to die. He was just loving life and things were going great for him,” she said. “But I felt the need to make people aware of this so it doesn't happen to somebody else."

Although the toxicology report is still pending, Kent said doctors told her Michael most likely overdosed from fentanyl.

Canada has the second highest per-capita number of opioid users in the world, behind the U.S. And although the U.S. rates have been declining in recent years, Canada’s numbers continue to rise, according to the International Narcotic Control Board.

“I've lost my son to this horrible tragedy and want to make parents aware that it can happen to anyone,” Kent wrote in the Facebook post.

 

I just want everyone to know that my son Michael overdosed on fentanyl . My son was not an addict he made a mistake that...

Posted by Sherri Kent on Wednesday, April 19, 2017