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	Mum slams emergency caller&#39;s reference to her dying son</p>
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	&#39;He was a son, he was a brother&#39;</p>
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	&#39;Rehab centres tried to convert him to God&#39;</p>
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	&#39;He was a quiet kid who went down the wrong road&#39;</p>
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	&#39;I&#39;ll never forget the image of him lying there&#39;</p>
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	A mother has told of her heartbreak after she heard how her son was referred to as &quot;just another junkie&quot; when an anonymous caller phoned for an ambulance on the day he died.</p>
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	Robert Keyes (23) was found dead in St Audeon&#39;s Park in Dublin on November 8, 2015 - just a month before his 24th birthday.</p>
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	The inquest into his death heard how a caller, who rang from a sim free phone, described him as &quot;just another junkie&quot; to emergency services.</p>
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	His mother, Pamela Reynolds, has opened up about the painful experience of dealing with a child struggling with addiction and is calling for people to think twice before they label someone a &#39;junkie&#39;.</p>
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	&quot;I hate that word, it&#39;s a horrible, disgusting word. Robert wasn&#39;t &#39;just another junkie&#39;, he was a son, he was a brother,&quot; she told Independent.ie.</p>
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	Originally from Drogheda, Co Louth, Pamela recalled how Robert was a very quiet child growing up, but sadly, he &quot;just went down the wrong road&quot;.</p>
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	He started smoking weed at the age of 16 and later became addicted to heroin.</p>
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	&quot;He was very easy going, probably too easy going, so I think that&#39;s how he struggled to say no. He hated school and I think that was part of the problem too,&quot; she said.</p>
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	Before his death, he had been clean from heroin for seven weeks following a &#39;cold turkey&#39; detox.</p>
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	She remembers the day he died vividly, and the last image she has of her son is one that will stay with her forever.</p>
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	&quot;It was a horrible, rainy day and I didn&#39;t even get his clothes back,&quot; she said.</p>
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	&quot;When they found him, he had a needle stuck in his groin, I didn&#39;t hear that until the day of the inquest last week.</p>
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	&quot;That image of him just lying there, it&#39;s one that I will take with me to my grave.&quot;</p>
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	Despite numerous attempts to check Robert into rehab centres, he could never overcome his battle with drugs.</p>
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	She claims one centre wouldn&#39;t admit him because he had a cut on his leg and another centre tried to convert him to God.</p>
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	Pamela still has the letters he wrote to her while he was going through his detox back in 2013.</p>
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	&quot;People are very quick to judge in Ireland. If I was an alcoholic, people wouldn&#39;t look at me like I was scummy, but when it&#39;s drugs, they stigmatise you.</p>
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	&quot;When I tried to help him, he would say &#39;Mam, you don&#39;t even smoke, you don&#39;t have a clue what this is like,&#39; and I didn&#39;t.&quot;</p>
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	Pamela has two other kids, aged 18 and 10.</p>
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	She described the guilt she feels following Robert&#39;s death as he had moved out of the family home.</p>
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	&quot;I always say I could have done better but no matter what you do, you can&#39;t help them unless they want to help themselves.</p>
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	&quot;They become so good at lying and stealing to feed their habit and I couldn&#39;t have him injecting in front of his younger brother and sister. You&#39;re made to choose between your kids, it&#39;s horrific,&quot; she said.</p>
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	Before Robert died, he hadn&#39;t signed in at his local garda station and Pamela became worried.</p>
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	After raising concerns with garda&iacute;, she claims one guard said to her: &quot;I wouldn&#39;t worry too much, he is probably just in a den shooting up&quot;.</p>
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	&quot;They didn&#39;t look at him like he was a person who had a family, they didn&#39;t look at him as someone who needed help,&quot; she said.</p>
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	&quot;The Robert I knew was good natured and soft, he had a lovely temperament, but he went the wrong way and there was no way back.&quot;</p>
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	She is calling for injection centres to be introduced in Ireland and for rehab centres to focus less on religion and more on the person.</p>
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	&quot;Robert would ring me and say, &#39;Mam, they&#39;re trying to make me become addicted to religion instead, telling me that God will save me.&#39;</p>
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	&quot;I don&#39;t want people to end up where Robert did, lying in that park. I definitely think there should be somewhere they can go to use. There is only a short space of time you have to be saved if you overdose. My son was lying in that park from 1pm and he wasn&#39;t found until 5, with a needle stuck in his groin.&quot;</p>
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	His younger sister is now in college and wants to work with recovering addicts.</p>
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	&quot;She told me she&#39;d like to try and help people when they come out of prison, she wants to help people like Robert.&quot;</p>
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	A toxicology report found he had xanax, valium, heroin and a metabolite of cocaine in his system on the day he died.</p>
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	The jury at the inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure.</p>
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	If you or someone you know is struggling with drug addiction, contact Drug and Alcohol Information and Support on 1800 459 459</p>
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	(Published by the Irish Independent on the 10th May 2017)</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/he-wasnt-just-another-junkie-a-mothers-story-of-how-her-tragic-son-slid-into-addiction-and-died-aged-23-35685233.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/he-wasnt-just-another-junkie-a-mothers-story-of-how-her-tragic-son-slid-into-addiction-and-died-aged-23-35685233.html</a></p>
