Season 24, Episode 5
Jordan
Age: 34
Location: Avondale, AZ
Addiction: Alcohol
Official Synopsis: Jordan served in the Army, and then had a successful career as an ICU nurse. When the pandemic hit, and ICU deaths skyrocketed, he spiraled further into an alcohol addiction.
What’s Memorable: What an old-school episode this one felt like! How far Jordan had fallen due to the compound trauma he’d endured over such a short amount of time. It really seemed like he was a pretty normal, well adjusted, kind-hearted guy until he was suddenly an ICU nurse during COVID, his brother died by suicide, and he lost his daughters. Damn that’s a helluva lot to go through. I found it especially painful watching his mother try to measure out his alcohol for the day, really believing that if she could just control the amount he drank it would be ok, only to be faced with the fact that he was merely entertaining until her the minute he could go out and get just as fall down drunk as he felt like getting. So depressing, but very happy he got sober and even moved to his kids’ state to be closer to them. Jordan seems like the type of guy that really needs to be a good dad to feel ok about himself.
Interventionist: Ken
Date Aired: July 18, 2022
I was also shocked how quickly he fell into his addiction – 9 months! And it broke my heart to see how his mom had to distribute the alcohol like medicine.
Yes! I just recently watched this episode and I can’t believe how he fell so hard so fast. Poor guy.
As painful as Jordan’s story is, I am so glad that Intervention is showcasing a narrative that is going to become increasingly common and arguably already is. There is definitely a surge of PTSD that has developed among frontline clinicians and first responders as a result of the pandemic, and how overwhelmed our entire healthcare system became as a result of the mismanagement at the onset. This trauma is known as “moral injury,” and addiction is just one of a myriad of maladaptive responses that develop as a result of such helplessness and stress. It’s not talked about enough, despite being recognized in copious amounts of literature. And there are resources out there that could help, like Witness to Witness. For anyone who is a frontline clinician and dealing with moral injury, PLEASE contact them! You don’t need to suffer alone and they offer so many great resources, and for free. https://www.migrantclinician.org/our-work-building-health-provider-capacity/witness-witness-w2w.html
Thank you so much for sharing this information. It doesn’t apply directly to me but my sister is a NICU nurse here in Texas and has shared stories about how the pandemic affected her and her colleagues. Rough stuff.
You’re welcome. Please consider sharing this with your sister. My best friend works as a nurse in a critical care setting and the pandemic really gutted her at the beginning. Like Jordan, she was totally overwhelmed watching her patients die and being pretty much helpless to do anything about it. She contacted them and credits them with saving not only her job, but her mental health. I think because the people involved are all trained mental health professionals volunteering their time, they really have an understanding of what people like her, your sister, and Jordan are facing and know how to help guide them. I hope it can help your sister as much as it did her.
I think many many nurses have the natural instinct to care for others. A lot of times, though, they don’t have time to stop and care for themselves. Many nurses self-medicate to get through the harder times (losing patients, having to work multiple shifts, etc) and that results in substance abuse and/or addiction. My sister is a nurse, and she’s destroyed her own health because of this very reason. I wish Jordan well in his continued recovery.
What is the purpose of his service dog? If it was ever addressed I missed it. I was thinking maybe PTSD?
I think it was just part of the rehab at the warrior clinic he was at. It was a great episode. Glad to have a change of pace from the recent heroin and fentanyl.
OMG I agree with the last part 100%.
no he tok the dog into the store with him to buy vodka.
Probably for seizures, as his mom mentioned he’d had them before related to alcohol withdrawl.
I’m guessing it was from his own injuries from when he fell on his back and injured it pretty badly…? He had the first one before he went to rehab, I think.
i could only get halfway through it- the fact that he dragged that poor dog into all of those scary situations was too much for me. i was terrified they were going to say that he lost the dog during a blackout or that the dog was injured or something.
He looked AMAZING after 45 days! I am rooting so hard for him. He and his whole family has been through so much.
He looked SOOOO good after rehab. But if he is still sober it has only been 3 months. seems like he is taking a lot on in a short time.
He would benefit from some kind of Warrior Heart sober living before moving to be with his daughters.
I was happy to see him flourish – many nurses I have known put others before themselves and don’t get a chance to get the help they need with their own health crises.
Was his injection of fentanyl not considered a suicide attempt? Given his medical training and not being addicted to it, there’s no way he wouldn’t have known what that amount would do. Yet it doesn’t seem like they held him for a suicide risk assessment.
They don’t always do that. I overdosed on pills deliberately once and the discharged me the next day.
I work in a treatment facility and it is truly horrifying how quickly patients who attempt suicide get discharged from hospitals. We receive many clients who have had many attempts, but as soon as the doctors declare them stable (and by that I mean pump them full of drugs) they are discharged. There is no mental health counselling for these situations. And I live in Canada… we have “amazing” health care. I have been front line during the pandemic and it is heartbreaking to see the amount of clients barely in their 20s who have become affected by severe mental health and addiction issues. Along with the relapses. I hope for the best for Jordan and his family.
If I was looking at Jordan in the hospital, I would have said psych hold, for sure.
On a more shallow note, Ken Seeley got a total body makeover and had to do it with no other painkillers than acetaminophen or ibuprofen. https://www.thedoctorstv.com/articles/4770-total-body-makeover-for-interventionist-and-former-addict
The link is not working… is it just me?
The article was posted in 2018…we’ve seen Ken since then.
He spoke about being careful about taking post surgery meds, nothing about him not taking them at all.
I found it on youtube. Ken looks great!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HguCxMRUIdM
My good friend’s boyfriend was a Veteran and was in Iraq, special forces. He was a sharp shooter, and had 5 or 6 “kills” that he had direct hits on (so he knew that he murdered at least 5 people-his words, not mine.) He had seen women getting raped in front of their children, yes by American soldiers, he saw men getting their throats cut..and many many other horrible things.
When he was discharged (honorably) he started drinking to try to forget all of the traumatic things he had seen and done. Gradually, he drank more and more, just like Jordan. Eventually, he was unable to go without drinking, again like Jordan. Eventually he had been hospitalized several times and the last time was because he was vomiting blood. A month later, my friend called him, and called and called. She went to his place and got ahold of the maintenance man to go check on him. He was gone for about 20 minutes, went back to my friend, and as he was telling her, the ambulance siren was getting closer and closer.
He died that night. He was a 50 year old man, who drank himself to death, literally. The maintenance man would not let my friend up because of the fact that her boyfriend had vomited mostly blood, and the othqer things that happen when a person dies.
I know it was only a few months ago, that Jordan got sober, but I thought of my friends bf the qqhole time I was watching Intervention. I pray Jordan, that you stay sober, that you remain focused and that you recognize how short life is, and that missing even a day of your children’s lives, is too much. The best way to apologize to your parents or siblings is to live a sober life. That alone will show them how thankful & blessed you know you are.
There was something really strange about this episode, and I can’t put my finger on it. The whole thing just seemed kind of “distant”… Did they actually show him drinking at all? Maybe that’s part of it? Or because — all things considered — he doesn’t actually look that rough.
And how do you steal meds from a patient, OD and die for 10 minutes… And then come back around and be able to be a nurse again?
Weird episode. I’m not digging this season.
You know nurses can get hooked on drugs and the hospital will send them to rehab. They can’t work around narcotics anymore but your license are still valid so you are able to still work as a nurse. However in Jordans case, he was down for 20 minutes. All I can say is his coworkers did some jam up cpr and saved him. No one even thought to think about his coworkers being traumatized to see their coworker unresponsive in the employee bathroom with a 50cc syringe stuck in his arm. I’m super proud of him and his recovery!! There’s plenty of fish in the sea Jordan! Plenty that look better than your X!
This was a great and timely episode. I hope he continues to do well.
As a nurse who also was up close and personal with Covid and also struggled with alcohol abuse, this is such an important story to share. The pain in knowing the patient you’re leaving for the day won’t be alive for your next shift weighs heavy on you. Facetiming family members so they can see their loved ones one last time is traumatizing. Jordan’s story is more common than we realize, but the stigma of addiction in healthcare often keeps people from getting help.
Most people in our line of work have demons, Jordan’s just became too strong to face on his own. Rooting for
him. ❤️ We do recover
Nurses, especially during covid, are angels
And should be held to the same level of respect as our veterans.
That was a powder-keg of an episode. Not sure If I have the correct order, but… Feeling like you threw away your career. Losing your brother to suicide and then your wife and children.
Then drinking, while treating trauma and dying patients in the ICU… So sad. Year’s of decline. So common. Intervention is a tiny little peek, at a huge problem.
anyone know how he’s doing now? j
What happened to wedding vows……in a situation he needs her more than ever, his “wife” leaves/divorces him and takes his kids away from him while going through one of the most difficult times in his life…..what a selfish piece of trash……I hope and pray that somehow he was able to turn it all around and survive…..
His wife was protecting his kids. Period. He was getting blackout drunk – her responsibility was to keep them safe not to enable a grown ass man. I hope one day he thanks her for raising and caring for his children while he was lost to his addiction. Not to mention keeping them free of the trauma he would have inflicted which opens the door for him to have a relationship with his children now that he is sober. She absolutely did the right thing.
Thank you, Mary. There is so much empathy for fathers on this show (not saying it’s a bad thing) meanwhile mothers get absolutely crucified- whether they are absent or in their children’s lives. There’s already someone who’s posted about the ex wife’s appearance, as if she’s some ghoulish hag who purposely and joyously provoked his random extreme suicide attempt. The fact he couldn’t regulate himself after a difficult phone call to resist injecting fentanyl in a hospital is proof he was not stable enough to be around his children. And the expectation that she should have been held hostage by his addiction worsening or him potentially killing himself isn’t fair. She’s a human and so are his children and their well-being has to be prioritized. Did the original commenter expect the wife to make him his withdrawal prevention mixed drink in the morning? That would have been great for his daughters to witness. If he stayed sober he should be thankful they didn’t see him in that state. Her staying with him would not have guaranteed recovery or kept him from worsening, he was clearly extremely unwell by the point of her call for him to do what he did. The worst episodes to watch are the ones where kids are involved and seeing the addiction affect their everyday lives- they can’t escape.