ONE BAD CHOICE COST HER LIFE

Before moving to Grande Prairie from the Vancouver Island city of
Nanaimo, Darren Steinke and his sister, Heather Work, would often get
stern lectures from their mother about the dangers of doing drugs.

As an employee of Edgewood, an addiction rehabilitation centre in
Nanaimo, their mother understood through her experiences there that
doing drugs is a gamble - except the user never wins and everyone,
including family and friends, loses.

It's why Steinke, 29, cannot understand why his 25-year-old sister
decided to take an ecstasy pill the night of Sept. 11, which
ultimately led to her death two days later.

"Because of (our mother) we've always grown up anti-drug, she was
always anti-drug and for whatever reason, she decided to try ecstasy,"
he said.

On Sept. 11, a Friday, Steinke was in Whitecourt visiting his twin
brother. Work was at her home in Grande Prairie's east-side Creekside
neighbourhood with her husband, four-year-old daughter and
two-year-old son.

According to Steinke, it wasn't long after taking the pill that Work
developed arrhythmia, and blood stopped flowing to her brain, causing
it to start swelling. She began coughing up blood, and then "she
collapsed in her kitchen at about 3 a.m."

Saturday morning he got a call from one of Work's friends that she was
in the hospital in a drug-induced coma and he immediately returned to
Grande Prairie along with his brother. Their parents flew in from Nanaimo.

After attempting to control the swelling in her brain by cooling her
body temperature, doctors informed the family early on the Sunday
morning that there was no neurological activity and that she was most
likely clinically brain dead before she arrived at the hospital.

"That's how quickly it happened (after ingesting the pill)," Steinke
said.

A toxicology test confirmed there was no evidence of alcohol or any
other drugs in her system, Steinke said. However, he also said it is
unknown at this time if the ecstasy was laced with any other chemical
that may have played a part in her sudden death.

"It's hard to tell," he said. "They don't know, and that's one of the
dangers of ecstasy."

Immediately following Work's death, a decision was made to fly her
body to the University Hospital in Edmonton where everything from her
bones, tissue, bone marrow, eyes, and organs - except for her heart,
which was not salvageable following the overdose -were harvested for
donation.

Steinke said a total of 71 people received something from his sister
and four had their lives directly saved because of her.

"Actually we just found out that there's a 10-year-old girl that had
four days to live that is now living and breathing and has a chance at
life because she has Heather's lungs in her," he said. "And there's
another little girl somewhere in Alberta that is seeing right now
because she has Heather's eyes."

It's an outcome that Steinke said his sister, who gave so much of
herself to her family and friends in life, would have wanted in death.

"Even after death she continued to give and that's something special.
So we as a family feel really good," he said. "And with the tragedy of
death, there's so many negatives that you look for the positives and
that is one of the positives that we can hold on to."

Nevertheless, the past three weeks have been "horrific" for the entire
family, and particularly for Steinke, who described Work as more than
his sister. She was his neighbour, confidante, and best friend.

"I saw her every day. I left my door unlocked, so she would come over
and take whatever she needed, and we were very, very close. We always
talked. She's very close to my mom and dad; she'd talk to my mom
three, four, five times a day," he said.

"I can't explain what it's like to lose a sibling, I can't even
imagine what it's like for my parents to have to bury their child."

Yet if he had one regret it's that "we all took our relationship with
her for granted in a non-selfish way. We just always expected she'd be
there the next day."

Steinke spent two weeks with his family in Nanaimo and upon his return
to Grande Prairie began preparing a celebration of his sister's life
for those who knew her. It will be held tomorrow.

After that, Steinke plans to take what he has learned from his
sister's death and try to impart it to local students.

"In high school I heard the 'don't do drugs' speeches, but I think I
can hit home a little bit with this one," he said. "The message I want
to get across is ... it hasn't happened to you, and you might be at a
party one night with that pill in your hand and think 'I've done this
100 times, it's not going to happen to me.'

"It does happen, and it happens quickly and it happens
unexpectedly.

"Heather was a very healthy 25-year-old, and that was the first time
she tried ecstasy, and that was all it took - one tablet."

He said he wants people to think about the consequences of their
actions

"And I'll tell them: If they can look in my eyes and see my pain, and
see my hurt, if they can get a glimpse of it, it would give them
pause," he said. "If I can get one kid to hesitate and put that pill
back in his or her pocket, then I'll feel like I've accomplished
something."