NBC 6- Family photos show Kelsy Davis growing up: having fun on a skateboard, celebrating milestones, and becoming a father.
He lived in Summerville, a small town in South Carolina home to around 13,000 families and a mother who clings to a life gone too soon.
“It’s too hard for me right now. It’s been 72 days. My heart is in a thousand pieces,” said Kelsy’s mother, Evelyn Davis.
Davis now walks by her son’s last belongings, sitting in luggage and boxes in her living room.
“It’s a daily reminder that, you know, my son is gone. But at the same time, it’s been too hard to bring myself to put it away. I’m not just going to put it in a shed,” Davis said.
At 16 years old, Davis said Kelsy was prescribed painkillers after having his tonsils removed. He liked them a bit too much, she said, and an addiction grew.
“These drugs do not discriminate. They don’t care if you come from a good home or a bad home. They don’t care where you grew up,” Davis said. “I’ve narcanned him more times than I can tell you.”
As her teenager became an adult, he racked up a criminal history: possession, shoplifting, disorderly conduct.
“He was really sick,” Davis said. “Physically they are old enough to make those decisions, but mentally, they are not capable once they’re that sick.”
When he turned 18, Evelyn had little control over Kelsy. She said he went from shelters to treatment centers, eventually ending up in South Florida.
On Feb. 11, police said Kelsy overdosed in an Oakland Park hotel. First responders saved him after someone dialed 911. Two weeks later, Kelsy stayed up texting late with Evelyn.
“You’re the best mom I could have asked for. You’ve always been there for me and had my back as far as you could,” Davis said, reading the texts from her son.
It was their last conversation.
Hours later, first responders found Kelsy sitting up against a fence behind a pharmacy parking lot along Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. He was 23 years old.
“It’s just not fair. We tried so hard,” Davis said while fighting back tears.
According to medical examiners records, there have been 3,388 similar stories in Miami-Dade and Broward since 2018. More than half of overdoses involving fentanyl, 2,045, happened in Broward County.
Overdoses linked to fentanyl reached a new level during and after the pandemic. In 2018, there were 169 in Broward. In 2022, there were 536.
According to the Broward Medical Examiner, Kelsy died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl and xylazine, a powerful animal sedative.
Federal and state officials warn about the deadly mix and how it’s spreading.
“It’s now being found in 48 states across the U.S.,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a video on the topic posted online through her office.
They’re a very small percentage of fentanyl-related deaths in South Florida at the moment, only 80 of the 3,388 involved xylazine. But most of those 80 have happened since 2021.
Each one is a mother’s child.
“We fought. We fought hard,” Davis said, “I’ve beat myself up for a long time that maybe I could have done more. But I don’t really think I could have.”
Davis said she is sharing her story hoping to help others in their own struggle.
“I just don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” Davis said, sending a message to other parents in her shoes, “Never give up on them. No matter how sick they are. That’s exactly what they are. They’re sick. Don’t give up on your kids.”
Officials say the mix which killed Kelsy is so deadly because xylazine is not an opioid, so Narcan does not reverse its effects.
