Drug overdoses contribute to record number of organ donors

Two days before he died of a drug overdose, Tony Shires stripped off his shirt in the middle of Circleville’s Pumpkin Show to sop up his 5-year-old nephew’s bloody nose.

Even when he was high, Tony was looking out for others, said sister Kelsey Shires, 27.

“That’s just who he was. If you didn’t have a dollar and he had just one in his pocket, he would end up without a dollar,” she said.

Tony Shires, 28, of Clintonville, had been sober from heroin for six years. In 2017, he went to treatment for Xanax and suboxone dependency and was clean for 51 days before he relapsed and overdosed on heroin Oct. 23.

Even in death, he was generous; because he was an organ donor, his kidneys, pancreas and liver saved three strangers.

“That was what he wanted. People can judge, but he could be the one who saved your dad, your whoever,” said his wife, Amanda Shires, 27. “When it’s a hard day I think, ‘It’s not only bad. Something good did come out of it.’”

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