How it All Began

The Origin of the Bridge Back To Life Foundation

By Founding Member Rhonda Obad

Tony Obad [1975-1998] It was in the cold winter of June 1998 that I lost my beautiful son Tony to heroin.

Some may say “So What”. Some may say “He is not the first and will not be the last”. To me he was my beautiful loving son and soulmate. Heroin turned him into a zombie. Heroin removed the love and trust we shared and replaced it with heartache of the deepest kind.

Tony was now faced with the second battle of his short life. He said to me “Mum, I wish I were in a coma now”. In 1994 Tony, through no fault of his own, was badly injured when assaulted by three others. This assault left him fighting for his life in a coma for 16 days and nights.

The names of the three men were Giuseppe Salvatori Esposito, Drago Skrtic, Alexander Subotic. At the ACT Supreme Court in Canberra the trio were convicted of having recklessly inflicted grievous bodily harm. Subotic and Skrtic both received three year jail sentences, each with a one year non-parole period, and Esposito was sentenced to four years with an 18-month non-parole period.

Yes, he had to learn to walk and to talk again, and also face the fact that he had permanent brain damage. He was only nineteen years old.

Various doctors advised us he could not be helped. We did not listen. We went to a hotter climate and started rehab. In the water day after day, night after night Tony walked. I was so proud of him.

I helped him physically, but his scars ran much deeper. This was the reason he tried heroin. His emotional pain was so deep. The wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong company, that is all it takes. A pin prick and you will end up with thorns.

On attempting to find help within the medical system I was asked to call back as there were no beds available. Tony detoxed at home. The next call was for rehab, but again we were informed that no beds were available. Even worse, we were told he would not have been admitted anyway because he had not detoxed in an approved facility.

You don’t need to be a genius to work out what happened next. He fell between the gaps not once, but four times. Yes, Tony was a fighter but so am I, and this is the reason I formed Bridge Back To Life Foundation.

The foundation’s motto is “Where it all begins”.

Let this be where we all now begin to make a difference to the gaps, together as a community, to erect this facility for youth who are at risk. United we can make this project the biggest project a community has ever undertaken. Your support in any form will be so deeply appreciated by the families that desperately need this help.

For us to progress as individuals and families, as organisations, as communities, we have to persist, always asking ourselves why.

As we do so, however we need to leave the territory of BLAME behind us, to search for real solutions not soiled by counterproductive accusations. To all those families who have lost loved ones to illicit drugs, you are in our thoughts. It is your loss and its effects that inspire the fight to prevent more of these deaths.

(photo in article: Tony Obad [1975-1998])

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