Cory's Cause foundation will be on had to educate families
FALL RIVER — High school athlete suffers injury.
High school athletes undergoes surgery.
High school athlete post-op takes a prescribed pain killer.
High school athlete is on the fast track to opioid addiction.
It happens. Cory Palazzi of Taunton will be more than happy to tell you precisely how it happened to him at Power in Prevention, a community family forum set for this Saturday morning at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School. The program runs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Admission is free. Pastries and beverages will be served.
A former Taunton High School honor student-athlete, Palazzi in 2013 suffered severe brain damage and nearly lost his life due to a heroin overdose. In 2016 he joined forces with his mother, Lori Gonsalves, and her husband, Dave Gonsalves, to form Cory’s Cause. They speak at schools, at conferences, virtually anywhere where they think their collective message can help. On Monday night, they were flying to Atlanta to be part of national opioid summit.
Saturday’s event at Diman — sponsored by SSTAR, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, and State Rep. Carole Fiola – will include a strong focus on the correlation between athletes and substance abuse. “Kids don’t realize,” Lori said, “you can get addicted through prescriptions.”
Addiction, Lori Gonsavles said on Monday, can be instantaneous. Such was the case with Palazzi, now 30, a 2006 graduate of Taunton High. A baseball pitcher in high school, he underwent shoulder surgery and, post-op, was given a prescription for pain. He became addicted, she said, “from the first Percoset”.
While many find the side effects opioids undesirable, some brains, like Cory’s, love the feeling … from the start. He finished his first bottle, got a refill. So immediately strong was the addiction that when he no longer could get a prescription, he turned to illegal methods, buying his pills on the street. The path to heroin was all about money. Heroin is much more affordable than, say, OxyContin. Of course, it can also be laced with lethal fentanyll. Palazzi’s brain damage severely limits his mobility and affects his speech.
To student-athletes and their parents looking at any medical procedure that might prompt a doctor to prescribe pain killers, Lori offers advice.
First, she said, the family should have pre-op conservations with the doctor(s), certainly asking if any non-opiate medications (Motrin, ibuprofen) might be worth using. And post-op, she says, an athlete taking opiates may want to skip a day, or maybe just a half-day, if she or he is feeling well enough.
Parents should remain vigilant. A child’s addiction can go unrecognized. Such was the case with Cory and his family. It wasn’t until he was at UMass Dartmouth, studying (ironically) nursing, that the Gonsalves realized Cory had a substance abuse issue. Gonsalves said she had noticed behavioral changes but had attributed them to Cory living away from home for the first time and “burning the candle at both ends.”
She encourages families to learn from her experience.
“I tell parents, if you feel something is wrong, it probably is,” she said.
Email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.