Ten-year-old Seven Bridges was a miracle baby. His mother, Tami Charles was told she couldn’t have children, but on July 25, 2008, he was born. But after that miracle birth, he had a rough start and took his own life earlier this month after an onslaught of bullying.
Seven was born with a condition that required a colostomy bag. Even after several surgeries, he would still have problems with leaks. Charles said it became a reason for kids to make fun of him.
“Twenty-six surgeries from the day my son was born. Twenty-six surgeries. He just wanted to be normal, that's all,” she explained.
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In some cases, after the surgeon removes a portion of the colon, it may be necessary to attach the remaining colon to the outside of the body in a procedure called colostomy. Creating a hole (stoma) in the abdominal wall allows waste to leave the body. A colostomy bag, like the one Seven had, attaches to the stoma to collect the waste.
Kentucky news affiliate, WHAS11, talked to Charles and Seven in September after an alleged bullying incident on his bus ride home from Kerrick Elementary School.
He said he was called the N-word by a student. His friend told him to beat-up that student, and when Seven refused, he said the bus buddy started choking him.
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“I still can't get him choking me out of my head,” he said in September.
Charles took her son to get a CT scan. Then she followed up on social media where her video calling out the district went viral.
“No referral, no incident report, no paperwork,” she said.
His mother fought for Jefferson County Public Schools to open an investigation into the incident. The district did, though a spokesperson from JCPS could not go into specifics about what disciplinary action may have been taken against the accused bully.
“I saw my son dead. That's something in my head,” Tami told WHAS11.
She came home from the grocery store to find her son had killed himself in the closet. Her husband, Seven’s father was at a church choir practice.
“For the few minutes that we left, he didn't want us to see that,” his father, Donnie Bridges said.
Because of his nature of death, the family is looking for support for burial expenses. You can donate via their GoFundMe, here.
There are a multitude of diseases which can lead to a person having a colostomy include bowel cancer, IBDs such as Crohn’s and colitis, and diverticulitis.
By diverting waste away, the colostomy bag can allow irritated or inflamed areas of the colon to heal.
No matter what the cause for the bag, there is no reason why a child should be bullied for trying to get healthy. Never. Ever.
JCPS has launched a full investigation to...
... make sure all policies and procedures were followed properly and to look into how all complaints that came into the school were handled.
Charles told WHAS11 she does plan to take legal action.
“The balls that were dropped,” she said, blaming the bullies and a flawed system that couldn’t protect her son.
“It wasn't that JCPS didn't have these tools, they just weren't at our school. It wasn't that they didn't have these tools to help the victims of bullying, they just weren't there, they weren't used,” Charles explained.
There is special service for Seven on February 1st, 2019. The information is pictured below:
