2 Investigators: Suburban Man Loses Battle With Heroin

(CBS) – A young man who was trying to make a difference became one of the latest heroin-related deaths that continue to plague DuPage County.

His name was Adam Silvers, and CBS 2's Dave Savini knew him well.

A year ago, the 2 Investigators profiled Silvers as he seemed to be having success battling his addiction.

"That was bad, that wasn't me," Adam said then, as he and a friend showed CBS 2 the Chicago location where they used to buy heroin.  "That was the addict, and I don't ever want to go back to it."

Adam and his girlfriend, Alyssa Newton, celebrated their one-year anniversary with a romantic walk. Silvers gave her a promise ring.

She says Adam, 23, seemed happy.  He had been working at a Naperville drug treatment center and was helping others.

But after 17 months of promises and sobriety, the drug pulled Silvers down like a current too strong to fight.

"Adam was the person that I thought could really do this -- you know, fight these demons and fight this battle," Alyssa says.

An estimated 70 percent of heroin addicts in recovery relapse, and all too often the relapse can be fatal.

In Adam's case, he was found last month at home with a needle in his arm. Newton found him and performed CPR.

"I thought he was coming back, but he didn't," she says. "It was hard because there was nothing I could do."

Adam was the 77th DuPage County heroin overdose in the past two years.

Congressman Bill Foster is fighting for new legislation to help uninsured addicts get treatment and to increase the availability of naloxone, which can reverse an overdose.

Tim Ryan, Adam's friend, tried using this medication to save him, but his overdose was too advanced.

Tim will be Congressman Foster's guest at President Obama's State of the Union address next week.