By: Makenzie Huber – April 27, 2025
Megan Cantone stumbled out of the hospital in tears from the pain.
She sought treatment for an infection from drug use. Medical professionals at the Denver hospital provided the treatment, but as Cantone recalls, it came with a heavy dose of judgment.
A doctor refused to numb her wound after recognizing it as being from illicit drug use, she said. The pain was supposed to convince her “never to shove a needle in your arm again,” Cantone said.
“I told my husband I feel like a complete failure, like a terrible person,” Cantone said. “That’s almost when a person could kill themselves because you’re at the lowest of your low and somebody treats you like that.”
Earlier that week, a nurse at a different hospital confronted her while treating another infection. The nurse told Cantone she’d end up killing herself and “pretty much told me I was disgusting,” Cantone remembers.
Cantone began experimenting with drugs in high school, but her opioid use started when she attended cosmetology and esthiology school in the Twin Cities. Her use escalated to meth and heroin over the years.