Death by Misadventure, by Mark A. Greene

                                                            

Death by Misadventure

“Missing UGA Student, Rebecca Greene, Found Dead In Creek” became breaking news in November of 2013. Since that time many have wondered and have asked just what did happen to Rebecca? As her father, I now wish to fully release the complete story of what brought Rebecca to such a tragic death.
Rebecca was a determined, independent, vivacious 22 year old young woman, who passionately took life by the horns. All who knew her can testify to her love for people and for living life to its fullest. But in the midst of all this, she had her ups and downs with anxiety and depression. In an effort to deal with this depression, she turned to healthcare professionals, who ended up putting her on various Black Box anti-depressants.
“Black Box” is a Food and Drug Administration term applied to specific prescription drugs that the FDA strongly warns may cause, especially for those under the age of 24, suicidal thoughts and or suicidal behavior. The FDA also warns that a person on these drugs must be closely monitored due to this suicidal warning and the dangerous side effects these drugs may induce.
At this point, you may ask why Rebecca’s healthcare professionals would prescribe and keep her on drugs so potentially detrimental to her? For that matter, why did they not attempt to wean her off of these drugs, since it is reported that the user can develop a dependence on them? Once again, why did they not prescribe anti-depressants not on the FDA Black Box warning list for suicidal behavior?
As Rebecca’s father, I did not know she was on these drugs, nor how dangerous they were until after her death. All of us are encouraged to trust the healthcare community. All of us are assured this community will not do anything to put us in harm’s way. So from the start, Rebecca gave them her trust, and I cannot help but say, that trust led her to a tragic end. At this point, I am not saying any of Rebecca’s healthcare providers deliberately put her in harm’s way, but with all the warnings surrounding the dangers of Black Box drugs, could they not have chosen to put her on a different medical path?
Now, let’s move to the time of Rebecca’s death. In late July of 2013, she saw a healthcare provider for the last time in Brunswick, GA, and then headed back to college at UGA, where she was taking daily doses of Wellbutrin and Prozac. Both are listed on the FDA Black Box warning list as drugs that have been known to induce suicidal behavior. At some point in the fall semester, it seems that some of the side effects associated with these drugs began to quickly increase. At the same time, the selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, SSRI for short, apparently took a negative turn and began to rewire her mind to eventually accept and act on the impulse to commit suicide. SSRI drugs alter the levels of a mood enhancing chemical called serotonin. But what it comes down to is that there is something about these drugs that can “alter” a person’s thinking to the point that they willingly, and in Rebecca’s case, not only willingly, but calmly commit suicide. Let’s move on.

On the weekend of November 16 and 17, Rebecca attended her Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity retreat. Virtually everyone present shared that Rebecca was a joy to be around and was in a pleasant frame of mind. Early on the morning of November 18, before heading off to campus, Rebecca, for the last time, talked with her housemate, Allie, who said Rebecca was her usual self. A few hours later, she spoke with one of her professors after class. He later stated that she did not seem stressed at all; he was in complete shock and disbelief over her death. About 5pm, November 18, Rebecca finished studying at a UGA library, texting her boyfriend to come pick her up; he text back that he would. Then several minutes later, she returned a text saying, “Actually, you know what, I guess I’ll just ride the bus because I kind of feel like going for a walk anyways. “ She even text a smiley face at the end.
About 5:15pm, she googled on her laptop, “the fastest way to overdose.” With that information, she rode the bus to a store, just a 10 minute walk from her house. She entered the store, and at 5:48pm bought several sleep aids. She made the short walk to her house, and for whatever reason, in her altered mental state, put her backpack under her housemate’s car. She hopped on her bike, and within minutes arrived at a nearby creek. At the creek, who knows what was going through her mind, a mind fully taken over by the suicidal thoughts induced by the Black Box drugs. She attempted to take all 80 of the soft-gel sleep aids, and then washed them down with a 12 ounce bottle of the liquid sleep aid Diphenhyrdamine. Eventually, becoming extremely drowsy, she made her way into the shallow creek, sat down, leaned back into the water, apparently crossing her arms over her chest, and let herself die. She lay in the creek all night and was found the next morning by a law enforcement officer. Her face was out of the water, and her eyes were open. She did not drown. Her body, being immersed in cold running water, caused her to die of hypothermia, but she was lured to the creek and murdered by these powerful Black Box anti-depressants. These drugs convinced her that ending her life was a good thing to do. Rebecca is not alone. Thousands of people die each year due to the tragic side effects of Black Box drugs. A partial list of SSRI suicidal deaths can be found on the website www.ssristories.com. Go to that site and click Archives, and then click number 11. It speaks for itself.
At this point I wish to inject 2 quotes: the first is from the Suicide Zone, found on www.rxisk.org. “It is important to distinguish between suicide and death by misadventure. Suicide is the deliberate termination of one’s own existence while in one’s right mind. Taking one’s own life under the influence of drugs is death by misadventure, not suicide. This distinction has huge legal, financial, insurance, and religious implications, as well as being of great importance to family and friends.” The second quote is from Dr. David Healy, an internationally respected psychiatrist, author, and Professor of Psychiatry in Wales. He is an outspoken critic of the types of drugs my daughter was prescribed. He states, “In a series of lectures, I have raised the question as to how long it might be before doctors would be found guilty for a suicide or homicide linked to an antidepressant, given that we have known that these drugs can cause suicide or homicide for over 50 years.”

To conclude: if you are on a drug that is on the FDA Black Box warning list, get off of it before it is too late, especially if you are under the age of 24. You have no guarantee that you will not become one of its’ victims of suicide. And beware; you cannot abruptly stop taking these drugs. You must come off slowly, under medical supervision. If you are a doctor, would you prescribe a drug on the FDA Black Box warning list for suicidal behavior to your son or daughter? Would you be willing to take the chance that your child would not end their life as my daughter did? Does the Hippocratic Oath no longer hold any value in our modern society?
Perhaps the knowledge this letter reveals will prevent someone else from a tragic death by these drugs. This would cause me, as Rebecca’s father, to have quiet solace, knowing that some good came out of Rebecca’s murder. Thank-you for your time. 

God Bless, 

Mark Greene, 

father of Rebecca Greene

November, 2014

*UPDATE*

 My father had started a petition on change.org to "Reduce Black Box anti-depressant suicide of young people through better education, drug control, and accountability of the medical community." If you have been touched by Rebecca's story, please consider clicking the underlined text and adding your name to those demanding greater accountability for the Black Box Anti-depressants.