The mother of the young man burned on “85% of his body” and “mortgaged for life” after lighting an arson in Saint-Malachie launches a heartfelt cry to parents about the dangers linked to criminal gangs.
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“Every day, I arrive at the hospital and I don’t know in what state I will find him,” confides Julie Baillargeon in an exclusive interview with The Journal.
Her 19-year-old son suffered second-degree burns to his face and third-degree burns all over his body after being involved in a fire at a cabin owned by a Blood Family Mafia sympathizer late last month. October (see other text).
The young man still has “more than a 50% chance of dying”, more than 10 days after the tragedy, says his mother.
In a coma until summer
He has been in intensive care since October 29 and is plunged into an artificial coma “at least” until the summer: his life hangs by a thread, she maintains.
“He no longer has any skin. It’s an open wound. A simple infection could cause cardiac arrest,” adds the 51-year-old woman, her voice full of emotion.
“Caught in the gears”
For several months, the young man, whose identity we are withholding for security reasons, had been “caught up in gang problems” and was becoming more distant, relates his mother.
“Of course he didn’t talk to me about it […] They are so indoctrinated, they are so afraid,” she mentions, while confiding that she was “not aware” of the “seriousness of the situation”.
Mme Baillargeon believes that his son met members of a criminal group last spring, while in detention in Quebec, for a case of armed assault, which occurred in a Lévis park in July 2023.
This gang was allegedly commissioned by the bikers to burn down a chalet on the night of October 28 to 29, according to our information.
Involved in the attack, the young man would have “mishandled” a Molotov cocktail, our informants tell us, which “exploded” in his hands while he was inside.
Burned on the night of October 28 to 29 in Saint-Malachie, nothing remains of the chalet, which is a total loss. According to our information, the chalet is owned by a Blood Family Mafia sympathizer.
Photo STEVENS LEBLANC
Burned alive, he was then taken into the forest, near the chalet, by his accomplices, before being transported to an apartment, where they tried to splash him with water in a shower.
He was then left alone, almost naked, in front of the Enfant-Jésus hospital in Quebec, in the early morning.
State of shock
The prognoses were so dramatic when she was admitted, particularly due to the risk of severe amputations, that Mme Baillargeon, in a state of shock, wanted to “unplug it”.
“I was screaming, there’s nothing I didn’t do. When I came into the room and saw him, it started ringing in my ears, I was no longer there,” she says, emotionally.
The mother of the seriously burned young man, Julie Baillargeon, was in “shock” when she saw her son in hospital, burned over 85% of his body. “No one wants to see their child like that,” she said.
Photo STEVENS LEBLANC
Long healing
The road to recovery will be “very long”, maintains Mme Baillargeon.
In addition to undergoing around a hundred skin grafts, he will have to relearn how to speak and eat, in addition to physiotherapy and occupational therapy, among others.
His body could also be “painful for life.” “All his nerve endings have been burned, which can cause him to be left with chronic neuralgia, as if his body will remember the last pain,” she explains.
“Stay close to them”
Even though she believes she “tried everything” to help her son stay away from the criminal world, Mme Baillargeon still wants to send a message to parents.
“It’s important to stay as close as possible to our young people, the only thing we can do is to shower them with love and show them that we are there,” she said.
She also hopes that this tragic event will help to discourage other young people from venturing into this “dangerous terrain”. “It can go very, very far […] There’s nothing worth going there for,” she said.
What she said
- “Before being attracted by an easy money pass, you have to remember that everything that comes quickly, goes quickly.”
- “No one wants to see their child like that.”
- “We have to stay tuned and talk to our children.”
- “My mandate currently is to love my son and to be with him. He made a bad choice and I think he will understand it.
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