Johnny is the best friend we never saw coming. Our friend group met him about a year ago one night out in Raleigh. He was a mess to say the least, but he had such a great personality and we saw the potential in him. We helped him fight his demons (which he was doing alone), and he’s been sober since September 2024, got his insurance licensing, finally found help for his depression, and had the life he never thought he could ever have.
Fast forward to June 3rd when he had a dizzy spell and passed out in the garage. We werent sure what exactly happened but he seemed to have fallen forward and then backwards, hitting the hard concrete floor. His head busted open and he wasn’t speaking clearly so we rushed him to the ER where they found that he had a wound down to the skull (7 staples needed), and had multiple fractures and bleeding in his brain. He also fractured the bone around his eye. He had lost a lot of blood and wasn’t completely coherent. They rushed him to the Wake med trauma center where further tests showed that he had significant damage to his frontal lobe and another brain bleed. They couldn’t control his pain so he was basically drugged up just to get him to go to sleep.
He spent 4 days in the neuro ICU where they also found out that he has a heart issue, which they think is what cause the fainting. Because of the severe brain trauma, they put that on hold until they can get his pain under control and him more stabilized. He was moved to the neuro unit in the main hospital and has struggled. His short term memory is affected. His balance is off. He has double vision. He is still in a ton of pain and a long road ahead of him
He will also face lots of challenges because your frontal lobe handles your emotions, complex cognitive processes, motor control, and aspects of personality and social behavior. In short, he is having trouble managing all of these areas.
Meanwhile, he’s lost his job because he wasn’t employed long enough for FMLA, he lost his insurance because he lost his job, and he will be in the hospital indefinitely at this point because once they figure out the brain stuff, they are moving on to the heart stuff. He has zero income and facing a heap of medical bills as well as other basic living expenses we are managing for him while he is in the hospital.
He has a super long road ahead of him and we are hoping y’all can help until he’s (literally) back on his feet again. And with the brain damage, we have no idea when he will be healthy enough to even work again. We’ve applied for assistance but they told us it could take up to 222 days before we receive anything. The case workers have been great but can only do so much. He won’t be able to drive until the brain is healed, which due to the severity, could be months or even years and he will need therapy to help.
He doesn’t have any family to help and his friend family is doing all we can. We need to tap into our village to ask for help since we now know he has a very long hard road ahead of him. If you could help in any way, please consider a donation. Every dollar helps and we will keep you updated as often as possible on his progress. Your donation will help go towards his massive hospital bills, caring for his dog and paying his rent/utilities so he still has a place to live when he gets to finally go home. When he is released, your donation will help him Uber to therapy and other Drs appointments when someone can’t get him there, as well as the costs without insurance for these treatments while we work on getting his assistance.
Thank you so much for being apart of Johnny’s village. Let’s show him the world hasn’t given up on him ❤️
