An Indiana mother whose heroin-overdose photo went viral last year has celebrated one year of sobriety.
Erika Hurt overdosed at the wheel of her car while her then 10-month-old son sat in the backseat on October 22, 2016.
Hurt was pictured by police after they found her around 2pm in Hope, Indiana, in the parking lot of a Dollar General Store, still clutching a syringe in her floppy left hand.
She was revived with a shot of Narcan and taken to the hospital.
On Sunday, the 26-year-old shared the viral photo on Facebook as she celebrated one year of sobriety.
‘I’ve seriously debated for the past month, on whether I should repost such a painful picture displaying the absolute worst moment of my life,’ she wrote in the caption of the post that also showed recent photos of her and her son.
Indiana mother, Erika Hurt (pictured during overdose in 2016), 26, who was slumped at the wheel with a syringe in her hand in a viral heroin-overdose photo, has celebrated one year of sobriety. On Sunday, Hurt reposted the viral photo on Facebook
![Hurt (pictured with her son, Parker) was pictured by police after they found her in Hope, Indiana, in the parking lot of a Dollar General Store, still clutching a syringe. She was revived with a shot of Narcan and taken to the hospital](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/10/26/00/45AE144B00000578-0-image-a-1_1508972606031.jpg)
Hurt (pictured with her son, Parker) was pictured by police after they found her in Hope, Indiana, in the parking lot of a Dollar General Store, still clutching a syringe. She was revived with a shot of Narcan and taken to the hospital
‘I’ve decided to repost the picture simply because it displays exactly what heroin addiction is. Also because I do not want to ever forget where the road of addiction has taken me,’ she added.
Following the incident, Hurt was booked into the Bartholomew County Jail and charged with child neglect and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Hurt told NBC News that she was horrified when she saw the photo of her overdose on the evening news while sitting in a jail cell.
‘They exposed me and my addiction to the whole world,’ Hurt said this week. ‘I thought it was terrible.’
The police official who released the photo, Hope Town Marshal Matthew Tallent, told NBC that it was never his intention to embarrass Hurt.
He said he shared the photo to highlight America’s drug epidemic which he said was ‘leaking into small town USA’.
Tallent released the photo to the local media, as police in other small towns around the country such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and West Virginia had done before.
‘I’m trying to show people that this just isn’t a city problem. The heroin epidemic is leaking into small town America and it’s getting really bad,’ Tallent told DailyMail.com last year.
‘Not only did this woman overdose and nearly die but, had she not passed out from the drug, she would have driven out of the car park and could still have been driving while passed out or under the influence.
‘She could have killed another innocent family,’ he added.
![Hurt said her addiction started with a staph infection that she contracted when she was 15. She was prescribed painkillers and got hooked. Before she knew it, she had moved on to heroin. She's pictured with her son Parker after the overdose](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/10/26/00/45AE144F00000578-0-image-a-11_1508972717338.jpg)
Hurt said her addiction started with a staph infection that she contracted when she was 15. She was prescribed painkillers and got hooked. Before she knew it, she had moved on to heroin. She’s pictured with her son Parker after the overdose
![Hurt (during her arrest) was taken to hospital and revived with a shot of Narcan](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/10/26/22/39BE394F00000578-3875506-Hurt_25_was_taken_to_hospital_and_revived_She_was_later_charged_-a-3_1477515927290.jpg)
![When police found her she had a syringe in her hand (pictured)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/10/26/22/39BE460000000578-3875506-Hurt_25_was_taken_to_hospital_and_revived_She_was_later_charged_-m-2_1477515913666.jpg)
Hurt (right during her arrest) was taken to hospital and revived with a shot of Narcan. She was later charged with child neglect and possession of drug paraphernalia. When police found her she had a syringe in her hand (left)
Tallent said the woman’s baby was crying when police found them in the car after being called by a passer-by who had seen Hurt unconscious.
‘The child was fine, he got fussy towards the end when they tried to take him out. He was crying when they arrived.’
He pleaded with members of the public to consider America’s drug problem, describing it as ‘getting worse by the day’.
‘I hope that people look at it and see what kind of state this is coming to, the heroin epidemic in the country right now. It’s getting worse by the day.’
And Hurt says she now understands why the officer shared the photo.
‘At this point in my life now, I do think it was a good thing, because I’m able to look back and see that’s who I was, and that was the place it led to,’ Hurt said this week.
Hurt told NBC that her addiction started with a staph infection that she contracted when she was 15.
She was prescribed painkillers and got hooked. Before she knew it, she had moved on to heroin.
Hurt said when she got pregnant she stopped and was clean up until her son, Parker, was born in December 2015.
She told the network that she relapsed and went to rehab, but two weeks later she went viral after shooting up in a Dollar General Store parking lot.
Hurt was given a two-year suspended jail sentence after she pleaded guilty to neglect.
![Hurt said when she got pregnant she stopped and was clean up until her son, Parker (pictured), was born in December 2015. She told the network that she relapsed and went to rehab, but two weeks later she went viral after shooting up in a Dollar General Store parking lot](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/10/26/00/45AE144300000578-5018411-Hurt_said_when_she_got_pregnant_she_stopped_and_was_clean_up_unt-a-65_1508973781549.jpg)
Hurt said when she got pregnant she stopped and was clean up until her son, Parker (pictured), was born in December 2015. She told the network that she relapsed and went to rehab, but two weeks later she went viral after shooting up in a Dollar General Store parking lot
![Hurt was given a two-year suspended jail sentence after she pleaded guilty to neglect following the incident. She posted these photos to Facebook on Sunday to celebrate one year of sobriety](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/10/26/00/45AE143700000578-0-image-a-5_1508972641121.jpg)
Hurt was given a two-year suspended jail sentence after she pleaded guilty to neglect following the incident. She posted these photos to Facebook on Sunday to celebrate one year of sobriety
Her sentence required her to go to an inpatient drug rehab program at the jail. She signed temporary custody of her son over to her mother.
When the inpatient program ended, Hurt lived at her mother’s under house arrest. She was reunited with Parker, who will turn two years old in December, and found a job in a plastic molding plant.
‘Today, I am able to focus on the good that came from that picture. Today, I am a mother to my son, again,’ she wrote on Facebook.
Last June, a report from the United Nations warned of a heroin epidemic gripping America with cheap supply helping push the number of users to a 20-year high.
In recent months authorities have said they are coping with an abnormal spike in the number of overdoses after heroin cut with elephant tranquilizer 10,000 times more powerful than morphine was being taken.
Ohio seems to be one of the states worse affected. The Franklin County coroner said earlier this year the county had 173 overdose deaths through April, a 66 per cent jump from the same period a year ago.
A record 4,050 people died of drug overdoses in 2016, with fatalities driven in large part by the emergence of stronger drugs like the synthetic painkiller fentanyl, the Health Department said.
Overdose deaths rose 33 per cent over the 3,050 deaths in 2015.