Mother loses son to addiction, tells story to help others

Click here for updates on this story

    St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana (WDSU ) — Drug overdose deaths have destroyed countless families and lives across Louisiana.

One of those lives is 31-year-old Sidney Bothman.

“Heroin is a drug that will kill people. It will grab them by the throat until it kills them,” Bothman’s mother Kelly Janneck said. “He was that guy that never met a stranger. He was a charmer he could charm the skin off a snake with that big, beautiful, infectious smile of his. He has that larger-than-life personality. He was a beautiful soul.”

But Janneck said her son was trapped in a struggle he could not escape.

He had been battling addiction for years. It started with pills and then escalated to heroin.

Janneck said his overdoses within the last six months became so common that they started to lose their shock value. She says being revived with Narcan each time made her son feel invincible.

But last week it was too late, and his addiction killed him.

“It’s a grief so deep that I know will carry for the rest of my life,” Janneck said.

Janneck said she wants families to know they are not alone and is pushing anyone struggling with addiction to seek treatment.

“Hopefully his story of his life, how he lived and how he died can help others and possibly save a life of someone that is our hope,” Janneck said.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.