Meth-user Bridges dies

“He didn’t want anyone to go through what he did,” his father, Jack Bridges, said in a telephone interview hours after Shawn Bridges’ death at age 35.

“We wanted to keep him with us a lot longer, but we appreciate God’s good grace,” Jack Bridges said, saying his son’s crusade continues. “We’ll still be trying to drive home the point that these drugs are poison, and that people using them are heading the same place Shawn has gone.”

Shawn Bridges drew attention last year with “No More Sunsets,” a 29-minute film shot at the request of Bridges, a former trucker who wanted to immortalize his slow, agonizing decline.

By his family’s account, Bridges already had died at least twice well before Monday, his heart so ravaged over the years by meth — a concoction that can include chemicals such as battery acid, drain cleaner and fertilizer — that it stopped and had to be shocked back into beating.

The documentary shows Bridges largely bedridden, his constant companions the catheter that funneled urine out of his body and the feeding tube that stuck from his stomach.

“I’d say he’s got a 34-year-old body on the outside with 70- to 80-year-old man on the inside,” his father told The Associated Press last year.

In 2003, nearly 136,000 people in the U.S. sought treatment for meth addiction.

Chip Rossetti, who filmed the documentary, said Monday he plans a sequel, chronicling Bridge’s final year and testimonials by people touched by his story.

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