Cathy's Story

Cathy Isford was on the verge of realizing her dreams. About to graduate from high school, serving as a teacher's aide to help achieve her goal of a career in teaching, and caught up in the excitement of planning her wedding.

She and her fiancée had given up raves and party drugs because one night, when they left a rave party they noticed a line of ambulances outside, waiting to rush drug victims to medical attention. For two years, she stayed away from anything unhealthy. But then, as her senior prom approached, against the wishes of her fiancée and friends, she decided to take Ecstasy one more time for prom.

She was one of 38 prom-goers that night to take Ecstasy. The other 37 woke up the next morning to celebrate a new day. Not Cathy. Her desire to make her prom special by taking designer drugs sunk her into a coma four hours after she took the drug. She never regained consciousness. With her family, fiancé and friends at her side, she fought to survive, but by the second day she was declared brain dead, and there was nothing anyone could do but mourn.

2. Cathy didn’t get a dose of “bad Ecstasy,” like PMA. She took the same pills many other kids took.

3. Cathy didn’t drink too little water or too much water, or dance too much. High temperature isn’t what caused her death.

4. Alcohol wasn’t a factor, either. Tests taken in the hospital and by the coroner revealed little or no alcohol in her system.

5. Shortly after taking two tablets of Ecstasy, she began complaining about a bad headache.

Those with her administered CPR and got her heart beating again, but she was unable to breathe until the paramedics came. After being rushed to the hospital and put on a respirator, she held on desperately to life for the first day, but by the second day, there was no movement at all. All the tests showed her brain was dead, and the hospital turned off her life-supporting respirator. With great sadness, her family began saying goodbye to their precious Cathy, who was so full of life just two days before.

In the movie Voice of the Victims, Cathy’s sister Star describes what happened next.

“For 20 minutes her heart fought to stay alive. For 20 minutes her heart monitor would go from green to red, and the moment we saw it going to red, and we saw the heartbeat lessening and lessening, we held on tighter, cried harder, saying goodbye to her, telling her we love her and we would always miss her.

“And then, all of a sudden her heart would start going back up, and start going into the green, fighting to stay alive because she loves us.”

Ultimately, though, one night of partying, one night in which she made a destructive choice, overpowered Cathy’s brain, causing it to hemorrhage and crush her brain stem, resulting in her death. As her family grieved beside her lifeless body, Cathy’s soul departed for a better place, a place where one day she and her family will reunite.

At her funeral, Cathy looked beautiful in her white prom dress. It wasn’t the end she wanted, nor was it the end she deserved. But we know that she will be pleased if, after you read this, you take Cathy’s Pledge and share her story and Cathy’s Pledge with others.

She would want you to enjoy life as much as she did – but for longer than she did.

Cathy’s Story is one of four stories told in the documentary film Voice of the Victims: True Stories of Ecstasy and Ketamine. The “Young Adults” edition also includes the stories of three other young people and their families who suffered through designer drug tragedies, plus special information-packed “chapters” with facts teens need to protect themselves and their friends, and to make the right choices. The Parents edition includes information parents and loved ones need to know to protect the children they love.