Mum’s emotional tribute a year on from son’s drug-induced death
A year after his death, a mother has shared an emotional video of her son on life support in which she rails against the dealers that sold him the drugs that killed him.
Philip Kramer, from New York, passed away on November 6, 2017, after being on life support.
He suffered a drug overdose after years of dealing with mental illness and addiction, leading to swelling on the brain. His family made the decision to take him off life support. His mother, Donna DeStefano-Miller, admits he was "in and out of rehab for a good part of his life."
On October 27, 2017, Kramer got in touch with his regular drug dealers, according to his mother. He was then found unresponsive by a roommate later that evening.
In the emotional video, mom DeStefano-Miller films her son on life support and says: "This is the harsh reality of drugs. This is my son’s [life-support] machines. And there’s my son. So my son decided to do this on his own, but he had a little help from the drug dealers, the same people that refused to respond."
She then directly addresses those who sold her son drugs.
"So when I ask all of you idiots what did my son take? What did you sell him? Instead of lying you could have done me a favour and called me up anonymously and told me this is what he had in his system. You’re contributing to this.
"This is reality, this is what a mother dealing with."
"If you ever come out of this, you stay away from them. They’re not your friends."
In the video, Kramer can be heard engaging in his very last phone call before his death, as well as playing with his young children.
In the phone call, he says: "Hey ma, I’ve cooled down, I’ve just gone to see my friend, I don’t know what else to say. Whenever you’re ready to talk, if you’re still willing to go with me to the grief counselling let me know. I just want to say I’m sorry, I’ve just been annoyed but I do love you and don’t take anything the wrong way. OK, bye."
A year on from the father-of-two’s death, his mother shared an emotional tribute on her Facebook profile. It reads: "My heart will always be with you," before thanking friends for their support.
