SALISBURY — Brandi Wrights was the topic of discussion for weeks after she and her then-boyfriend overdosed on heroin and were found unresponsive in downtown Salisbury.

Her 5-year-old son was beside her as she slumped over in the passenger seat of a pickup.

Before she was given the overdose-reversal drug Narcan and was taken away in an ambulance, her picture had already been circulated on social media.

She recalled the humiliating experience as one that, although embarrassing for herself and her family, motivated her to get sober.

Wrights, a 25-year-old Woodleaf native, recalled how one of the lowest points in her life became a blessing in disguise.

Wrights said she and her boyfriend purchased a package of heroin the size of a pencil eraser, then split it and snorted it. They later drove with her son, Logan, to downtown Salisbury to grab something to eat. But they never made it farther than a parking space in front of the downtown business Critters.

Before an ambulance arrived, bystanders began snapping pictures of the young woman, who was slumped over in the passenger seat. Her boyfriend was found unresponsive on the sidewalk.

Things happened rather quickly, she recalled, and then she was unconscious. Her then-boyfriend walked over to check on her and passed out on the sidewalk. A business owner and police captain kept her son occupied while medics worked to revive her, which she said she is grateful for.

“I knew I had a problem,” she said of her drug use.

Although some in her immediate family and friends knew that she abused pills, “I always thought it was a big secret,” she said.

She began abusing prescription narcotics after her father died when she was 16 and a boyfriend died not long after. She buried her feelings with pills, which were always available. At one point, she took four or five 30 mg pills of Roxycodone, a narcotic pain reliever, in a couple of hours.

She abused pills for eight years. But the August incident in downtown Salisbury was the first time she had ever tried heroin, she said.

After the story of her overdose aired on the afternoon TV news and in the next day’s newspaper, Wrights said she began seeing people on social media comment that medics should have let her die.

She said some of those people knew her and didn’t know if she was dead or alive.

She said she agreed to speak out about the ordeal and her sobriety because she simply wanted to give people a better memory of her than being the woman who overdosed in downtown Salisbury.

Wrights returned earlier this week to the same spot where she was was found in August. She took a selfie and posted it on social media. She figured it was a way to say to people who had counted her out that she had overcome despite their misgivings.

Her Facebook post, which has garnered more than 1,100 shares and 600 comments — many of them positive and encouraging — has reached as far as Australia.

Wrights wrote: “Since my lowest moments were made so very public I thought I’d give you guys a little update. As of today (Tuesday) I am 46 days clean, have successfully completed an inpatient rehabilitation program in Charlotte, I’ve gained 15 pounds, I no longer wake up feeling like death automatically thinking of how to get that next pain pill in my body to feel ‘normal.’ I thank the Lord for every single breath I’ve been given the honor to take since I died on that sidewalk, and I’m moving forward.”

She said she likes the feeling she gets knowing that her story, although embarrassing, may help someone else.

Wrights said she had no intention of being back on the news, but since her story was already out there she thought she may as well let people know she’s better and leave them with a better memory than just “the girl dead in the truck.”

Wrights’ son, Logan, is under the care of his father and is happy and healthy, she said.

Wrights has had the opportunity to change her life, a luxury not all get. In a matter of 10 days, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and Salisbury Police Department investigated 18 overdose calls, three of which were fatal.

Rowan authorities were called to 11 reports of overdoses from Sept. 17 through Tuesday; Salisbury police were called to eight incidents in the same time period.

Police officers went to one home twice. It happened Saturday at a home in the 800 block of North Lee Street. Twice that morning, a man had overdosed. Officers went to the home at 2 a.m. and returned at 7 a.m.

Police investigated three other incidents on the same day.

Rowan County deputies were called to a home in the 300 block of Phillips Avenue in Landis for overdoses by two different people within four days of each other.

Reports show a 29-year-old woman died in the 100 block of Andrews Ford Road on Thursday and a 22-year-old woman died two days after she was found unresponsive in her mother’s Kannapolis home. On Saturday, a 23-year-old man was found dead at a home on Ted Lane.

Local leaders and emergency responders have said the numbers don’t fully account for how many people have overdosed in the county since not all overdose calls are reported to law enforcement.

In July, August and September, local authorities including law enforcement, EMS and fire personnel responded to 508 overdose calls. In that three-month period, Rowan County EMS alone responded to 175 calls for overdoses and fire personnel responded to 167 overdose calls.

The number of emergency room visits for opioid overdoses continues to climb in Rowan County. In June, 23 people went to the emergency room for opioid overdoses. That number rose to 30 people in July and 32 in August, which is the latest data available, according to the N.C. Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT).

NC DETECT reported 125 opioid overdose visits to the emergency room from January to August of this year compared to 37 in 2016 within the same time frame.

Contact reporter Shavonne Walker at 704-797-4253.