On April 17, 2021 Jean-Pierre Bourbonnais was driving his motorcycle home from work when a vehicle backed onto the road and Jean-Pierre hit the vehicle head on (warning: graphic content). Jean-Pierre was taken to hospital where he remained in a coma on life support.  On a scale of 1-15 his brain activity was 3.  He had lost 80% of his blood, shattered numerous bones in his body and severed a major artery. A month later, Jean-Pierre awoke from his coma.  His road to recovery will be long and hard.  He has undergone pelvic, hip, and hand surgery and is currently awaiting knee surgery.  It is estimated that is will take a minimum of 18 months for Jean Pierre to walk again, and will require extensive physiotherapy.  

Jean-Pierre lives in Chile with his family and near his sister Nathalie, who have remained by his side during this ordeal.
Jean-Pierre, Mirna, Aaron and Lis
Jean-Pierre, Nathalie and Marc-Andre


Jean-Pierre's brother, Marc and father, Pierre, live in Vancouver, BC.    Due to Covid19 restrictions, Pierre cannot to travel to join his son. However, Marc is a dual citizen and will be joining his brother soon to help him in his recovery. 

Pierre and Marc-Andre


Currently Jean-Pierre lives in a 5-story walk up and he will not be able to return to his residence.  Marc plans to find wheelchair accessible accommodations for his brother and himself and is in the process of relocating to in Chile in order to take care of his brother until he has fully recovered.   He describes his brother as follows:

“Hi, my name is Marc-Andre and I want you to know my older brother Jean-Pierre Diego.  We were born and raised in Chile. He's always been a caring brother and a good, goofy humorous person, a responsible hard-working father, always providing for his family, trying to help others on the best way he could.  He loved going out with his family and friends to parks and stadiums to see soccer games, riding his motorcycle, and doing BBQ on the weekends. He was working as a security guard at the U.S. embassy in Santiago, Chile when this accident happened on his way home to be with his family. It's been 5 months and he still hasn't been able to leave the hospital due to his injuries.  Jean-Pierre will have a slow and painful recovery as the fractures in his pelvis were severe and he has an exposed nerve in his leg which causes him a lot of pain. He will need extensive physiotherapy to be able to walk again and work to provide for his family. This accident has left him in a very rough situation, and we need your help to take care of the medical expenses as in Chile as we do not have a Health Care System like here in Canada.”

The costs of Jean-Pierre's recovery include medical costs, rehabilitation costs, equipment costs and re-housing costs.   The doctors estimate it will be the end of October when Jean-Pierre will be released from the hospital but at least another year before he will be able to walk again.  We estimate the total costs will be about $30,000 $CAD.  Jean Pierre and his family appreciate your support as he begin his rehabilitation journey and re-builds his life.
Jean-Pierre in the hospital.