It was an ugly scene: Ronald and Carla Hiers had been together for 20 years before they became the face of America's awful drug epidemic last year. They were videotaped overdosing in public after having taken heroin.
They were sprawled out unconscious on the sidewalk, trying to crawl around before passing out next to the gutter in broad daylight. The two of them had just injected and snorted heroin at a nearby bus stop in Memphis, Tennessee.
When paramedics arrived on the scene, they gave them a dose of naloxone, which is used to resuscitate those who have taken lethal amounts of narcotics. They were taken to the hospital and revived.
However, that wasn't the end of their troubles.
Ronald was free to go, but Carla was arrested for outstanding charges of petty theft. After his traumatic day, Ronald went home and attempted suicide by injecting the rest of their heroin stash and taking 48 Xanax pills at once.
Luckily, there was someone in his life that wouldn't give up on him just yet.
When the video of Ronald overdosing went viral, one of the viewers was his estranged daughter from a former marriage, Paris Hardee. She was struck by the footage, and immediately reached out to her father.
She helped him find treatment and supported him through his attempts at rehab. Eventually, he managed to give up substances entirely.
Carla was released from jail several weeks after the incident and says she has reestablished her connection with her faith. The two of them have remained in touch afterwards, however, have separated themselves in order to get their lives back together.
Ronald is still living in Tennessee, and sees his children and grandchildren often. Carla refuses to return to the city she left saying, "I don't want to go back to Memphis. A lot of bad memories, a lot of bad things happened there."
