Mark Sandoval cannot erase the image of anguish in his wife’s face burned in his mind.

Six months ago, Mark and Val Sandoval lost their son, Isaac “Skinny” Sandoval, to fentanyl poisoning.

On April 11th, 2022, Isaac, weeks away from being done with school, took what was thought to be a Percocet and never woke up.

Val and Mark Sandoval began working on the prevention of fentanyl poisoning after their loss through speeches to the public. They were asked to describe their experience and Mark decided to write a synopsis of the discovery of his son, calling 911, performing CPR, and notifying loved ones of the loss.

“My intent was to use that as maybe if I share kind of what I was going through or what my experience was, is that dumb kids wouldn’t do it,” Mark Sandoval said. “It’s too damn dangerous, and number two, educating parents on it. And God forbid they have the experience that we’ve had. That was the intent.”

Fentanyl is a worldwide crisis with 165 people dying from synthetic opioids in 2020 in Kansas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths from synthetic opioids rose 114.3% from 2019 to 2020 in Kansas alone.

“Happy” and “go-lucky” was exactly how Val described her son, who constantly had friends over.

“I want people to know that your child can be a good student, a popular kid, and doing everything they’re supposed to do,” Val said. “We had no reason to be concerned. So that’s why I think it’s important that parents talk to their children and for parents to keep a close eye on who their friends are.”

“There were four other deaths in Wichita that weekend due to fentanyl poisoning,” according to Val Sandoval.

“Isaac was a bright kid,” Val said. “He was ornery. He had a lot of friends. He didn’t know a stranger. He could make friends with just about anybody.”

Val Sandoval joined a fentanyl awareness group called “Life Lost Voices of Fentanyl”. They work towards spreading awareness of fentanyl poisoning deaths and planning marches.

“I joined the group one month after Isaac passed, there were 4,000 parents on there,” Val said. “Since then, it has jumped to 16,000 parents that have lost a child or a cousin or a loved one to fentanyl poisoning.”

Val wants everyone to understand that dying from fentanyl is not the same as dying from an overdose.

“Anything someone gives you, you don’t know it’s poison,” Val said. “So to me, it’s a poisoning to me. It’s murder.”

Jenny Ecord, a nurse practitioner that has specialized in pediatric cardiology for over 20 years, speaks about the fentanyl epidemic from a professional perspective.

Ecord explained how fentanyl is sold to cartels in Mexico, pressed into molds as a powder, and falsely advertised and distributed as Xanax, Percocet, or even Adderall. Fentanyl was never intended to be a powder.

“The pills themselves are not evenly distributed with fentanyl,” Ecord said. “Fentanyl builds and is difficult to even out, so one pill may have a lethal dose, while another pill from the same batch has none. It’s practically a sugar pill. It’s like playing Russian roulette.”

With deaths from fentanyl involving pills, the Sandovals have noticed the stigma that those who are dying are those using drugs.

“We’re learning that it is not,” Mark Sandoval said. “You can’t put a face to it.”

In the future, both Mark and Val are looking forward to advocating more against fentanyl.

“I’m not ashamed of it,” Mark said. “I just want to educate people on it and I want to educate kids on it.”

Mark enjoyed watching Isaac grow up and turn into a young adult.

“I’m just tickled to spend time just to take time and learn who you are,” Mark said. “And, just know your parent should always know who their children are.”

After seeing how many lives Isaac touched and brightened, Val wishes she could say how proud she was.

“After Isaac passed away, I heard all these stories and seeing all these videos, and seeing how many lives he touched, and how all of his friends, all of his many many friends called him their best friend,” Val said. “How he brought groups together, people that didn’t get along together like Maize South students and Maize High students. I would tell him how proud I am of him because I didn’t do that enough because I was always parenting him, telling him what not to do.”

Val has had multiple calls from unknown numbers call her, only for her to find out they were some of Isaac’s friends expressing how he brought them out of their shells, even talking one out of suicide.

“Isaac had a very wide range of friends,” Val said. “It wasn’t just the jocks, it wasn’t, you know, there were all walks of life around him all the time and you know, his light shines so bright while he was alive, but it also shines after death.”

Mark Sandoval hopes that their efforts will at least help stop one death.

“If this or any action that is done for the positive, prevents this from happening once then it’s a win,” Mark said. “I have no delusions of grandeur that we’re going to stop putting it into everything, all experimentation, everything. I don’t. I’m not that delusional. … I don’t know if there is one single thing that Maize can do, or Wichita could do, or Kansas could do, or the United States could do. Kids will always be kids. They will always think they’re indestructible.”

The Sandovals want to express to children how dangerous fentanyl is.

“I would never want any of you to go through what Isaac’s friends have gone through,” Val said. “They’ve all really struggled.”

The day Isaac passed away, the Sandovals discussed how not only did they lose Isaac, but so did many others.

“Many many young kids’ hearts were broken,” Val said. “To me, it was devastating when they come here and just sobbed in my arms. No, it was very, very, very sad. It was something that will always be on my mind.”

Fentanyl not only ended Isaac’s future but many others as well.

“Not only did it steal my son’s life and future, but it stole my future,” Val said. “I’ll never dance with him at his wedding. I will never see my grandchildren. His girlfriend Jack will never be my daughter-in-law. Fentanyl didn’t only take my son and his future, but also took our future with our son and my daughter, who will never know her nieces or nephews.”

Jacqueline Blackman has known Isaac since December 2019 and began dating him. Isaac was the “best person ever” to her and she wouldn’t be who she was without him.

“He was very outgoing and very like I would say just loyal to his people,” Blackman said.

Isaac enjoyed working out and learning more about ways to become strong. Blackman believes that if Isaac knew someone was struggling with drug abuse he would tell them to set themselves up for success.

“You just have to make the decisions that are gonna benefit you in the future,” Blackman said. “And he basically tell them, you know, find other ways to cope, you know, and like try to lean off of it, get some help, go to therapy, stuff like that.”

Blackman believes that everyone needs to find a way to cope.

“I feel like everyone needs therapy sometimes,” Blackman said. “So like, not necessarily like, you don’t need to go to therapy, but you need to find ways to healthy cope.”

Blackman’s biggest fear was the rumors that might be spread after Isaac’s passing.

“People were going to take it as like, ‘oh he died by taking a pill, so that means he did drugs, that means he was addicted, all this stuff,” Blackman said. “And that was my biggest fear because Isaac never did drugs. Never. And so like this one time, and he only took half of the Percocet. And so I don’t want people to remember him in that way because, you know, it was a dumb mistake. Everyone makes mistakes and that just cost his life, unfortunately.”

This story was originally published on OneMaize Media on October 25, 2022.