'He doesn’t get to tell his story': B.C. mom opens up about losing son to toxic drugs

Jacob Wilson’s story is not easy for his mother to tell. But Abbotsford School Trustee, Shirley Wilson, is sharing the heart-wrenching details of her son’s life and death because he no longer can.

“I miss his hugs. I miss having him at family dinners. I miss him doing the most unexpected things,” an emotional Wilson said.

At the age of 21, Jacob’s world was turned upside down, when, after losing his job, he went partying with a friend.

“Jacob was lying in the middle of a road, just before 3 o’clock in the morning,” said Wilson who would later learn cocaine and marijuana were found in his system.

He was run over by a pick-up truck.

In a video produced with Abbotsford Police, a 911 call is played and a voice is heard describing the accident.

“Ped struck, completely run over but not trapped,” the dispatcher said. “Our victim’s name is Jacob. That’s all we know so far.”

As doctors tried to save his life, Wilson said her son “died and they resuscitated him three times.”

Though Jacob lived, he suffered traumatic injuries.

“I didn’t even recognize him,” Wilson said of seeing her son in the intensive care unit for the first time.

“There was so many tubes and so many wires and machines and doctors,” she explained.

“When he was run over, his face was caught by a tire. There was significant damage to his face and his eye.”

He was also left with a significant head injury that doctors warned could lead to psychosis.

It did.

And while Wilson said her son had dabbled in drugs before the accident, he later became dependent on them.

“It became a place, a refuge for him because of the mental distress that he had. And of course, drugs create psychosis as well,” she said.

But Wilson said her son was looking for help to fight his addiction.

“He really looked hard for help and was rejected by places, private places, that could have helped him but said he was too complicated,” she said, adding that he eventually spent $40,000 after an ICBC settlement to get into a treatment facility.

Tragically, when he got out, his battle continued.

On November 9, 2021, Wilson took her son to the hospital where he was put with patients having mental health issues.

“I had a nurse from that department say they wouldn’t be keeping Jacob and… before the doctor ever saw him, she was going to recommend he be discharged,” Wilson said.

The following day, she couldn’t reach her son. He eventually called her.

He was back in the hospital and said he’d overdosed the night before. He said he expected to be kept as a patient.

“I said, ‘Call me when you can.’ I never talked to him again. They discharged him shortly after the call and he died within hours of that call,” she said.

“They discharged my son twice in 48 hours when he was needing help. And he was willing to take the help. He wanted it, and they turned their back on them,” she said.

“He preferred meth, but in the end it was fentanyl. It was an accidental fentanyl overdose (that killed him)."

He died on Nov. 11, 2021 and he is one of the more than 11,000 people whose lives have been lost since B.C. declared a publiuc health emergency due to overdoses and toxic drugs. 

In a YouTube video released this week by Abbotsford Police, Shirley shares her son’s story.

She hopes it will help the public better understand what her son, and others like him, face.

“We need to humanize what is happening in this epidemic,” she said.

“We need people to realize there are individuals who are loved and cared for and supported who still can’t get those services that they need. This is not their choice to become an addict.”

She also said the stigma in healthcare facilities and other institutions around people with addictions needs to be addressed.

Wilson would like to see more services readily available for people like her son when they are seeking help. She said financial barriers need to be removed.

Wilson said her son had hoped to share his own story of recovery one day.

“He doesn’t get to tell his story, but I get to tell our story and my story and I think he’d be cheering me on,” Shirley said.