Valley Families tell of addicts lost, and helped

YOUNGSTOWN

Cassandra West, 19, of Boardman tried to get help. Donny LoGiudice, 28, of Boardman tried, too.

Both had gone to treatment facilities. Both died earlier this month.

Cassie committed suicide April 6. She left a letter saying she couldn’t handle her drug addiction anymore.

Donny died April 2 of a heroin overdose, the day after he got out of a rehab center.

Their parents wish they had gotten the help they needed.

Cassie’s mother, Jennifer West Roupe, recalls the tough-love approach she took when Cassie called her from a treatment center asking her to send a package.

“I said, ‘I’d rather my daughter sit in dirty underwear than come home and find her dead one day.’ They let her out three days later,” Roupe said.

Donny’s father, Donald LoGiudice, recalls the car ride home from the treatment place in Akron that Donny attended.

“He was so happy and cheerful, the best I’ve seen him in years,” Donald said. “It’s too bad the program wasn’t two weeks long instead of five days. Because maybe he’d still be alive.”

Short-term care doesn’t cut it for opiate addiction, said Dr. Daniel Brown, medical director at Meridian Community Care.

Read more treatment stories in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.