The parents of a young Calgary man who overdosed a few weeks ago are speaking out to warn others about the dangers of taking street drugs and the impact that decision can have on friends and families.

Anthony Hampton, 18, was rushed to hospital on Friday, July 17th after his mother found him unresponsive in his bed.

She called 911 and the dispatcher coached her through the CPR procedure while paramedics made their way to her Calgary home.

EMS crews were able to resuscitate Anthony and he was taken to Rocky View Hospital in critical condition. The teen was in a coma and on life support for several days and is just now starting to show signs of improvement.

Anthony’s parents have been asking themselves every day since their son was hospitalized how this could happen?

In speaking with friends of the teen they learned that Anthony and an acquaintance decided to try what they thought was OxyContin one night after work.

“He ended up going out and meeting a couple of kids in Brentwood and ended up going out and ended up connecting with a fellow that was selling drugs while they were on their way to 7-Eleven, they were approached and then he ended up, a couple hours later, texting that fellow and looking to buy marijuana, which he didn’t get, because they didn’t have any so the fellow offered other things, he offered cocaine and meth and some really horrible drugs so Anthony and his friends chose Oxy, or what they thought was Oxy, and we know that Anthony took it because he sent a Snapchat picture of himself to a couple other friends with the label Oxy underneath,” said Anthony’s mother Pat.

Anthony’s family says he had never tried anything like it before and that the next thing they knew he was in a struggle for his life.

“He wasn’t answering his phone and I got home by 1:30 and he was in his room and lying in bed and he wasn’t breathing, he had blue lips and blue hands, blue feet and wasn’t moving and I couldn’t wake him,” said Pat.

Police believe that the pill Anthony took was not OxyContin, but Fentanyl or a mix of Fentanyl and Oxycodone, and say the man who sold it to him was stabbed to death at a party the following weekend.

Fentanyl has been making headlines across the country in recent weeks after a number of people overdosed on the painkiller.

Sgt. Brent Hill of the RCMP's Chemical Diversion Unit says Fentanyl is now in the spotlight because, for many drug users, it's taken the place of increasingly hard-to-obtain oxycodone, while also offering recreational drug users a new high

“It's just an evolution that drug producers have brought to the table,” Hill told CTVNews.ca.

Fentanyl is likely to blame for the overdose of 16 people in the Vancouver area on Sunday and police there say it is difficult to track down the source and that the drug is becoming a growing problem.

Police say people are overdosing on the pills and some are dying because dosages can vary from pill to pill and users have no way of knowing what they’re getting.

“It can be extremely deadly,” said S/Sgt Martin Schiavetta of the CPS Drug Unit. “It slows the heart rate and reduces breathing and can often be fatal.”

That’s something Anthony’s family now knows only too well as his friend seemed to come through the experience unscathed while Anthony almost lost his life.

“All his organs were shut down, like his liver, his kidney, everything was not working," said Pat.

Anthony has a long road to recovery ahead of him and he and his family will forever be affected by his decision.

“It’s been three weeks, it’s been a huge improvement and he is making eye contact, he’s smiling, fingers and toes are starting to move, yea he’s doing great, he’s showing great signs that he’s going to have a life, quality of life,” said Pat.

Anthony is now breathing on his own and had planned to attend SAIT this fall but those plans are now on hold while his family waits to see how he responds to treatment.

“He’s getting there. We’re seeing some real positive signs and we’re hanging on to those and think he’s going to keep going,” said Reg. “The brain is an amazing thing from what we’ve learned, and this has been an education, that it can rewire itself and so that’s what we’re hoping is that he learns to use the parts of his brain that are functioning properly to take over those tasks and get his life back again.”

The family hopes their story will help spread awareness about the dangers of street drugs and help other parents and teens to make better decisions.

“You just never know what you’re taking. You’re trusting your life to someone on the street that you’re buying a pill from. That’s really what you’re doing,” said Reg.

“It’s important to get the message out there. Anthony and his friends believed that they were taking Oxy. They believed that Oxy was nothing more than a stronger version of Tylenol 3s or Tylenol with Codeine and I think everybody needs to be made aware. I think parents need to talk to their kids. I think kids need to talk to other kids and everyone needs to get the message out there that this isn’t Oxy and the drugs that are being made on the street, even the Fentanyl that’s in this drug that he took, isn’t Fentanyl that you would get at a hospital it’s made in garages, it’s made with whatever they can find and it’s often even far stronger than what they use in a hospital in a secured ICU with medical trained staff so you don’t know what you’re getting, you don’t know what’s in there, you don’t know what they’re mixing it with and it’s changing its chemical makeup and it’s dangerous,” said Pat.

“I keep saying to myself, I should have maybe had one more conversation with him. I should’ve maybe talked to him a little bit more and brought these examples to him but there’s always second guessing about these things,” said Reg. “If even one family has this conversation and a kid decides , no, I’m not going to take that pill, that’s good right? You know, if we can just have those conversations and realize that it can happen to anybody.”

For more information on Fentanyl and resources for families, visit the AHS website HERE.