BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE STORY. WE MET IN THE CORN ON THE CORNER OF SIXTH AND MISSION ABOUT A YEAR AGO. IT’S BEEN A YEAR OF UPS AND DOWNS FOR AUSTIN DRAPER. I’VE COVERED ADDICTION A LOT, AND SOME OF HIS LOWEST MOMENTS ARE BEING DOCUMENTED. LIKE MOST PEOPLE SMOKE FENTANYL OFF OF FOIL AND HE USES SYRINGES. BEHIND THE CAMERA SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE PHOTOGRAPHER GABRIELLE LURIE AND REPORTER MAGGIE ANGST. A LOT OF TIMES WE’LL BE ON THE STREETS TALKING TO FOLKS ABOUT THE CONDITIONS AND NEW POLICIES AND WHAT THEY’RE DEALING WITH. AND SO WE CAME ACROSS AUSTIN OUTSIDE OF A CLINIC, ACTUALLY, I THINK PICKING UP CLEAN NEEDLES AND JUST GOT STARTED TALKING TO HIM. DURING THAT TALK, THEY LEARNED AUSTIN HAD BEEN DEALING WITH SERIOUS HEART INFECTIONS SIX TIMES IN THE LAST FOUR YEARS. ENDOCARDITIS IS A HEART INFECTION. PEOPLE WHO INJECT DRUGS CAN GET IT FROM DIRTY NEEDLES OR JUST THEIR SKIN BEING DIRTY, AND GERMS ENTERING THE BLOODSTREAM AND THEN ATTACHING TO THEIR HEART. IT CAN PROGRESS REALLY QUICKLY. IT MAKES YOU FEEL TERRIBLE. YOU FEEL REALLY LIGHTHEADED. AND YOU HAVE NO APPETITE. TELLING HIS STORY MEANT AUSTIN WOULD HAVE TO TRUST GABRIELLE AND MAGGIE WITH THE MOST INTIMATE PARTS OF HIS LIFE. JUST FELT LIKE THIS STORY IS NOT GOING TO BE 100% IF THESE MOMENTS AREN’T CAPTURED. THAT INCLUDED HOSPITAL STAYS, CREATIVE OUTLETS, AND DRUG INDUCED SLUMBERS. HE WAS EAGER TO GET HIS STORY OUT THERE, TO EDUCATE PEOPLE THAT THIS IS A RISK THAT YOU COULD FACE IF YOU CHOSE TO START INJECTING DRUGS. IF I HAD HEARD MY STORY WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE DONE THINGS A LOT DIFFERENTLY. MAGGIE AND GABRIELLE WERE THERE AS HE RECOVERED FROM HIS THIRD HEART SURGERY EARLIER THIS YEAR. IF IT GOES UNTREATED, ENDOCARDITIS CAN BE FATAL. AND THERE’S THIS KIND OF DEBATE IN THE HEALTHCARE COMMUNITY OR IN THE SURGICAL FIELD ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT TO PERFORM MULTIPLE OPEN HEART SURGERIES ON SOMEBODY WHO IS A DRUG USER. THE LAST TIME, YOU KNOW, HE LEFT THE HOSPITAL WITH ENDOCARDITIS, HE SEEMED LIKE HE WAS VERY INTERESTED IN HIS RECOVERY, BUT HE RELAPSED AFTER RETURNING HOME. THE FARTHER HE GETS AWAY FROM THAT HOSPITAL AND THAT KIND OF CLARITY, HE HAD WANTING TO BE SOBER SEEMS TO BE A LITTLE BIT MORE DISTANCED, MORE DISTANCE. BUT ALWAYS ON HIS MIND, ESPECIALLY WHEN HE GETS TO BE CREATIVE WITH HIS SEWING. I’VE WATCHED WHAT I’VE CREATED IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS, AND I FEEL LIKE I’M CONSTANTLY IMPRESSING MYSELF, WHICH IS NICE, A NICE FEELING. I WONDER WHAT MORE I COULD DO, LIKE IF YOU WERE SOBER, YOU THINK YOU COULD DO MORE? IS THAT WHAT YOU MEAN? MAYBE. YEAH. IT’S AT LEAST WORTH TRYING. IN SAN FRANCISCO, SARAH MCGREW KCRA 3 NEWS. WOW. YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT AUSTIN’
San Francisco Chronicle: This dangerous heart infection is associated with drug use
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Maggie Angst and photographer Gabrielle Lurie share how they reported this story
Updated: 11:03 PM PDT Nov 1, 2025
Hearst TV Multimedia Journalist
In the last four years, Austin Draper has suffered from a serious heart condition, endocarditis, six times. He had to have lifesaving surgery for three of those infections.”It can progress really quickly and basically makes you feel terrible,” Draper said. “You feel really, really lightheaded. You have no appetite.”Injecting fentanyl is what led to Draper’s infections. “If I had heard my story when I was younger, I probably would have done things a lot differently,” he said. Over the last year, San Francisco Chronicle Reporter Maggie Angst and Photographer Gabrielle Lurie spent time with Austin as he went to doctors’ appointments, had his third surgery, and through it all, continued to use.”I’ve covered addiction a lot, so witnessing people using doesn’t really faze me too much,” Lurie said. “Most people smoke fentanyl off of foil, and uses syringes.”In the video above, Angst and Lurie share how they reported this story, and Draper talks about what it’s like for his struggles to be shared publicly. “The last time he left the hospital with endocarditis, he seemed like he was very interested in recovery,” Angst said. But then he relapsed after returning home and finding leftover drugs in his apartment.”The farther away he gets from the hospital and that kind of clarity he had, the more it seems that long-term recovery or wanting to be sober seems to be a little bit more distanced. You can read Angst and Lurie’s full story here. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SAN FRANCISCO —
In the last four years, Austin Draper has suffered from a serious heart condition, endocarditis, six times. He had to have lifesaving surgery for three of those infections.
“It can progress really quickly and basically makes you feel terrible,” Draper said. “You feel really, really lightheaded. You have no appetite.”
Injecting fentanyl is what led to Draper’s infections.
“If I had heard my story when I was younger, I probably would have done things a lot differently,” he said.
Over the last year, San Francisco Chronicle Reporter Maggie Angst and Photographer Gabrielle Lurie spent time with Austin as he went to doctors’ appointments, had his third surgery, and through it all, continued to use.
“I’ve covered addiction a lot, so witnessing people using doesn’t really faze me too much,” Lurie said. “Most people smoke fentanyl off of foil, and [Draper] uses syringes.”
In the video above, Angst and Lurie share how they reported this story, and Draper talks about what it’s like for his struggles to be shared publicly.
“The last time he left the hospital with endocarditis, he seemed like he was very interested in recovery,” Angst said.
But then he relapsed after returning home and finding leftover drugs in his apartment.
“The farther away he gets from the hospital and that kind of clarity he had, the more it seems that long-term recovery or wanting to be sober seems to be a little bit more distanced.
You can read Angst and Lurie’s full story here.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel