By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – C.J. Bonnet never asked to be the poster child for the shortcomings in the Obama national health insurance plan.
But the 22-year-old Slidell resident is living that life.
Three years ago Bonnet was involved in a car accident on Military Road when the vehicle he was a passenger in was struck head-on while waiting to turn into a local restaurant.
Even though Bonnet was sitting in the back seat he suffered the most severe injuries. The seat belt he was wearing put so much pressure on his lower abdomen that it resulted in numerous ruptures and cuts.
Two surgeries later and a month in the hospital left him with a colostomy that is hardly the way a young man entering his adult life wants to live.
Now, three years later his injuries have healed enough to make him a candidate for a reverse colostomy, but he can’t afford health insurance and has been denied for Medicaid that is supposedly available for those who can’t afford their own health insurance.
“The health insurance is so expensive that I can’t come close to affording it,” he explained, sitting on the couch of his father’s house in south Slidell. “I am able to work a little bit now and I work any chance I can, but I am not making anywhere near the kind of money that would allow me to get insurance and get this reversed.”
Lifelong friends have come together and are holding a benefit for him this Saturday, March 19 at the American Legion Hall on West Hall Avenue. (See details on the benefit in another story on this page.)
Even though the benefit will help pay medical bills he still owes, ultimately he still needs some kind of health care assistance if he is ever to get his colostomy reversed—something that could cost up to $75,000.
Incredibly, Bonnet maintains a good attitude about the entire three-year ordeal and is thankful for his father’s home and help, and friends who are trying to get him through this ordeal.
“My personality has always been that I go with the flow and this is what I have to deal with for now,” Bonnet said. “But I really want to get this reversed—I want to feel normal again.”
Bonnet is a 2012 graduate of Salmen High and is the grandson of Ed Bonnet, a longtime youth sports leader in Slidell. His father, Chris, and uncle Keith Bonnet played sports at Salmen.
When he was 6 years old his parents split up and he has been raised by his father ever since. Things have been tight financially for years since his dad went on disability after having several surgeries.
After Bonnet graduated in 2012 he went to work as a painter and in other areas of construction hoping to one day get into the music production business, or go to culinary school. All those dreams came to an end on April 16, 2013 when he was picked up by two friends and headed for a Military Road restaurant.
“I remember we were stopped in the turn lane, waiting for another car to turn into the same place. All of a sudden we saw a car coming very fast right at us,” Bonnet recalled.
The speeding driver turned out to be under the influence of alcohol, Bonnet said he later learned. The car side-swiped the other vehicle, then bounced off and hit Bonnet’s car head-on.
Bonnet recalls being stuck in the back seat because his ankle was jammed under the passenger side in front of him. A crowd quickly gathered around the car and friends managed to get him out. His ankle was badly injured and would later require surgery, but otherwise he had no idea how severely his other injuries would turn out to be.
“They got me to the side of the road and then I lifted up my shirt since my abdomen was hurting,” he said. “I couldn’t believe the huge bruise from the pressure of the seat belt. You could see exactly where the seat belt was pressed onto me.”
Bonnet was taken to the hospital and had surgery on his ankle, but surprisingly was sent home after four days even though he continued to complain of abdomen pain.
“They said it was bruises from the seat belt,” he said.
It only took a few days back home before the pain got so severe that his father took him to the ER where they finally found the damaged intestines. Surgery resulted in six inches of his lower intestine being removed, along with several inches of his colon.
“When I woke up from surgery I looked down and saw the colostomy,” he said. “I immediately wondered how it would change my life and what my friends would think of it.”
But the problems for Bonnet weren’t over. After being home for several days he had another incident one night when he felt a burning sensation in his stomach followed by severe pain in his abdomen. Back to the ER and they discovered more areas of his intestine with cuts and leakage.
“They drained the fluid out of me and ended up taking four to five gallons that had leaked out of my intestines where I was open from the cuts,” he said.
The entire ordeal saw him in the hospital off-and-on for nearly two months and while he has finally healed internally enough to have the reverse colostomy surgery there is little hope of that without some assistance locally.
“I am beginning to work in a limited way, but I can’t stand for very long and can’t pick up heavy things,” Bonnet said. “I definitely work when I can, but it’s not in the way I used to. And with a colostomy you can forget ever working in the food service business.”
Kathryn Lewis Waite is heading up the effort to help Bonnet. Anyone wishing to help can contact her at 985-718-8697 or by emailing slidelltreasures@yahoo.com. There is a Facebook page for the benefit under the name “BonnetBenefit.”