Friends plan benefit dance to raise funds
Four months ago, Bentley Louviere was as healthy as a man could be. He exercised regularly, ate right and took great care of his body.
But after contracting a bacteria called Serratia marcescens, the 1981 Hahnville graduate recently celebrated his 48th birthday in a nursing home. Though turning a year older in such a facility isn’t ideal, Louviere is lucky to be alive after the bacteria ravaged his body and left him at death’s door.
Louviere’s ordeal began when he moved from Washington State to Orlando, Fla. to help a friend launch a new vitamin line.
“He was getting ready to launch the line and he wanted Bentley to learn the business and work with him,” Louviere’s sister, Gwen Savoie, said. “Because they hadn’t launched the project yet, Bentley wasn’t fully employed and didn’t have insurance because he was between jobs.”
That’s when the bacteria struck.
Soon after arriving in Orlando, Louviere began suffering back pain. Because he had surgery on a bulging disc 11 years ago, Louviere had often had back trouble. So he told his friend that he just needed three days to lie on his back until the pain went away.
By the fifth day, Louviere was in intense pain, suffering violent shakes and sweating profusely.
His friend called an ambulance.
Tests showed that Louviere had an infection in his back and he was transferred to Florida Hospital so that he could be seen by an infectious disease specialists.
“I arrived two days after he had been taken to the hospital and I was scared when I saw how much pain he was in,” Savoie said. “The doctors were shocked because they couldn’t believe that Bentley had suffered from this pain for five days without having any pain medication.”
When Savoie arrived, doctors visited with Louviere and told him that he would need emergency surgery to remove a spinal epidural abscess that was pushing on his spinal canal.
“They said it was a life or death situation and they had to go right way,” Savoie said.
Doctors had to remove a portion of the vertebral bone and began treating Louviere with several antibiotics but the bacteria kept attacking his spinal cord.
After yet another surgical procedure and three more weeks in the hospital, Louviere lost 40 pounds.
“He went from 5’11”, 210 pounds to 170 pounds,” Savoie said. “He was solid muscle before that. This is a person that ate right, exercised all the time and was very, very conscious about his body.”
The pain that Louviere was going through at this time was almost impossible to bear. He would suffer violent shakes that would put his back into spasms. Savoie said that one of these episodes lasted an hour and a half.
“Most of the time they would last 30 minutes and they happened so often that he was never able to get any rest,” Savoie said. “I tried to feed him as much as I could, but because he was in so much pain I don’t think he could even think about food.”
Savoie said that doctors were prescribing Louviere as much pain medication as possible, but that she would witness his intense reactions to the pain on a daily basis.
“You think when you get into a hospital that you are going to get better, but he was getting worse,” she said. “The infection was not reacting to the antibiotics the way the doctor hoped it would. I’ve cared for and have seen death in my family before and as Bentley’s health declined, he became so pale, weak and so very thin.
“I felt I was looking at death again.”
Because the antibiotics weren’t working as well as the doctors’ hoped, they planned an additional surgery. Since they had already gone through Louviere’s back in the previous operation, doctors were planning to go through his abdomen to remove additional abscesses.
“I didn’t feel good about the surgery because it seemed so risky,” Savoie said. “I told everyone I knew to keep praying that his body would finally start to react to the antibiotics.”
After that weekend, the antibiotics started to work and Louviere would need no more additional surgeries.
After spending more than a month in a hospital, Louviere was transferred to a nursing home, where he has remained for the last two months.
“The infection did cause nerve damage to his spine on his left side, so every now and then he wobbles a bit with his left leg when he walks and he may never get full use of that leg again,” Savoie said. “The doctors said it would be a year before they know if he will have any permanent disabilities.”
Until that time, Louviere is undergoing aquatic therapy three times a week to get his core and back strong again. He has to wear a back brace that covers his entire upper body and when he walks he uses a walker with wheels.
“Despite being in the nursing home, Bentley has made friends with so many people there,” Savoie said. “He has such a great personality that you can’t help but love him. He plans on returning to the nursing home after he leaves to visit with the friends he has made there.”
The ordeal has been tough on Louviere, but family friend Ineta Loup said he is doing his best to deal with the situation.
“At first he was just trying to cope with the pain,” Loup said. “Once they got him to a stable point, you could tell he was like, ‘Wow, I just survived something that could have killed me.’”
Savoie agrees.
“He said it was a life-changing experience,” she said. “He knows he came close to dying. He has been a hard worker his entire life, everything was about work and he never slowed down, so it was hard on him to be in this situation.”
Loup, who is a cancer survivor, has planned a fundraiser dance for Louviere scheduled for June 17 from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. at the VFW Hall in Luling. The band Moonshyn will perform.
Tickets are $60 for a couple and $40 per person. It is bring your own liquor.
During the dance, a three-person charter fishing trip, worth $1,200, will be raffled off. It includes one day of fishing, a one night stay and three meals.
Raffle tickets are $20 a piece.
“Knowing that he didn’t have insurance and that things would mount, I did this to show how much I loved them and cared because Gwen is like a sister to me,” Loup said. “I am a cancer survivor and going through what I went through I saw how important family is.
“They will both need funds and help.”
Savoie spent three months in Orlando caring for Bentley and said that all of her friends in St. Charles played an important role in Louviere’s recovery. Some, including Registered Nurse Jessica Vicknair, visited multiple times. Savoie was able to post daily updates on Louviere’s status on her Facebook page and was also able to keep in touch with friends, family and co-workers while she was away.
“It also served as a journal for me on how I was feeling and the situations I had to deal with at the hospital,” she said. “I was able to receive feedback and encouragement to continue fighting for my brother’s care.”
Savoie said that she read all of the comments she received back to her brother.
“I was able to let him know about all the people that love him and that were praying for him,” she said. “Everyone here at home and elsewhere played an important role in his recovery.”
For tickets to the benefit dance, contact Loup at (985)785-0999 or Savoie at (985)785-2158.
Donations are also being accepted at any Total Choice Federal Credit Union. Donations must be made to the Bentley Louviere Fund.
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