#ChaseTheStigma Medical Fund
Donation protected
On Monday, April 25, 2016, my 32 year old nephew, Chase Borden, drove into the mountains of upstate SC, called his wife, powered off his phone, walked down a path, put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
By the grace of God, Chase survived. Now his wife and two daughters need help with the medical bills that will come and their immediate need is for assistance with household expenses. Can you help?
To those who choose to read the rest of Chase's story, please know that the details are not shared to sensationalize his struggle but are to inform you of the very real and frightening struggle that mental illness brings.
His Rescue
Thankfully, Chase gave his wife enough information so that the police and rescue workers were able to find his car that evening. After 3+ hours of looking for him, the search was called off and the ambulance left. It was 11 p.m., too dangerous for the rescue workers and the helicopter team to continue in the mountains. The best man at his wedding was there, along with Chase's father-in-law, and they pleaded with the rescue team to check one final trail. Approximately 15 people went down the only trail that hadn't been searched. This last trail led to the base of a waterfall and that's where he was found, face down. Two strong men carried him up that trail, placed him in the back of their truck, and drove him to where the helicopter could pick him up to transport him to the hospital. The cold temperature by the waterfall saved him by putting him into a "deep freeze". His heart rate slowed, which slowed the bleeding and caused his blood to clot. He was breathing. It was a miracle! The neurosurgeon on call that night was someone my sister had worked for, and he had known Chase since he was a little boy. Dr. Gardner saw my sister before going into surgery, I think that comforted her, and he fought to save Chase's life. There were many many stars aligned to save Chase that night. I believe with my whole being that his guardian angels were also there with him.
His Mental Illness
Chase was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in early Spring 2015 at the age of 31. He was hospitalized twice within the last year in a mental hospital, Patrick B. Harris, in Anderson, SC. The second time he was committed was after threatening to kill himself. His wife and his mother found a rope that he had hung in a tree in a wooded area behind the house. The hospital did nothing for him. They drugged him and placed him in front of a television. There was no therapy, no family therapy or guidance, and when he was discharged the second time, he was told by a staff member not to come back. The worst of it is that the hospital had 5 days to enter him into a database that would have flagged him as mentally ill and prevented him from purchasing a gun but they didn't. Then a few months later, on April 25, 2016, he passed a background check and legally bought a gun.
It's astonishing to think about his descent into paranoia and, it is thought, he lived almost a decade with symptoms, including multiple voices that lived in his head. The past three years have been very bad. He has to be incredibly strong to have functioned as well as he did.
No one in our family had experience with mental illness. We were, quite simply, ignorant of the signs. After researching our family history and speaking with my aunts, I didn't find any indication of mental illness on either side of our family tree. Unfortunately, Chase's father chose to walk away, he has not seen him since he was six-months-old and we have no information about his family. A genetic component is likely with this disease and there can be trigger events. I believe the death of my brother-in-law, Chase's stepfather, four and a half years ago, was one of those triggers. Chase viewed him as his father, even though he was a young teen when his mom remarried. Losing his grandfather, my dad, in 2001 was very difficult as well. Daddy was Chase's role model.
His Life
Chase was a happy little boy, typically sweet, funny, affectionate and mischievious. He was loved immensely and surrounded by family and friends. He loved baseball. He loved swimming. He loved the family wave runner they had in the mid-90s, and enthusiastically took a course on its proper operation and safety rules. Chase was so excited to be certified, and able to take it out on the lake alone. He struggled in high school, nothing serious, he just seemed unmotivated. He didn't get into a lot of trouble, loved his mom and family, was respectful and polite. He was taught manners and he used them. He wasn't a punk, he was just a typical teen boy.
He fell in love at a young age. Chase and Kisha have been together for 16 years. She is one of the strongest women I know! She loves him fiercely, and I am in awe of her capacity for love. Whenever I saw them she was smiling and affectionate, and he receiprocated. Even after his diagnosis when he wasn't taking the proper medications or taking the meds he had properly and there were struggles at home, their love was palpable.
Kisha works in a day care, and they have two daughters, Kiley-9 and Caroline-7. They do not have medical insurance or a retirement account or stocks. They need more financial support than our family can provide. Chase is a loving father and husband. He adores his daughters and his wife! He provided for them to the best of his ability. He was an involved and present father. But their daughters have now seen and heard far too much for their tender ages. I am determined that they receive the counseling that they deserve and need. This family needs help!
Chase has worked as a landscaper for the last decade, rising to a team leader position and running a crew. He continued to work after his diagnosis because of his family. He wanted to provide for them. After a few job changes he was blessed to find work with a company with immense compassion. He had a boss who held his job for him through two hospitalizations and multiple doctors appointments. The entire company knew Chase struggled but they, like many of us, had no idea what his wife and daughters were going through at home.
I've learned a lot of what was happening in the home these past few weeks. It is heartwrenching! The fact that I wasn't told how bad it was goes to show that people are even reluctant to talk about mental illness within their own families. I was always told "he's hanging in there". When we would speak on the phone he always seemed like he was struggling, but he told me he was taking his meds and when his next doctors appointment was scheduled. In reality, Chase was pacing in the house talking back to the voices in his head and kneeling in the middle of the street screaming at God, "Why aren't you helping me!" That incident ended with his 7-year-old taking him by the hand and saying, "c'mon daddy, we've got to go into the house". Both girls would get into the front seat of the car whenever he threatened to leave and never come back. They would tell their dad, "you can't leave, we're in the front seat and it's not safe to drive with us up here." That always got him out of the car and back into the house. The day before he bought the gun, he told his 7-year-old that he was going to shoot himself in the head. These children need your help.
I need you all to understand that this was not my nephew. He would NEVER hurt his children. They were always happy, loved, secure and protected children. This is what mental illness looks like. We need to erace the stigma. We need to start a real conversation! According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death among persons aged 15-34 years.
His Recovery
We feel so blessed to have Chase alive. However, we don't know what his future looks like. We don't know when he will wake up or what personality changes he will have. He had a partial frontal lobectomy upon admission. His mouth took the brunt of the explosion, most of his teeth are gone, and the sinus cavity in his forehead is gone. He may lose sight in one eye but his eyes are intact, his nose, cheek bones, and ears are there and he looks like himself, who he will be when he wakes up we've yet to discover, but HE IS ALIVE!
Chase had a 5 1/2 hour surgery on May 4. Sixteen plates were placed to stabilize his orbital and mandible fractures, and to protect the brain. The surgeon also had to clean up some necrotic brain tissue. He was moved out of Neuro ICU on Friday, May 13. He still isn't awake and since surgery hasn't moved with purpose, as he had been doing prior to surgery. The doctors say, "give it time", it's due to the "anesthesia from surgery". His pneumonia and fevers are resolving, and other infections are too. He was evaluated for the physical rehabilitation hospital last week. A physical therapist has started to sit him up, his eyes flew open when that first happened, and they are moving his arms and legs to work his muscles that are starting to atrophy.
His Family
This past Monday, my sister, Chase's mom, was let go from her new job. She was within a 90-day probationary period. The first two weeks of Chase's hospitalization, my sister was treated well, with understanding and compassion. Then she returned to work with adjusted hours to allow her time to visit the hospital. ICU has quiet time with no visitors between 6-9a and 6-9p. Those hours made it difficult for her to visit between the normal business hours of 8-5. Now that he is going to survive, it seems as though that compassion no longer exists. Fortunately, she will be okay financially for a little while, and will look for another job in a few months. Now she can focus on being with Chase and splitting the days at the hospital with Kisha. That will allow Kisha to work a couple of mornings per week, meet the girls when they arrive home on the school bus, help with their homework, and just spend time with them. The school counselor is meeting with both girls regularly. Kiley understands more as she is older and she is affected the most. Caroline doesn't talk about it much other than praying for her daddy. We received professional advise on what to tell the girls, which was, his disease made him careless and he accidentally shot himself. I'm sure the girls talk among themselves and they are being allowed to ask questions when they have them. Everyone pitches in to keep their daily life as normal as possible.
His Future
A lot is unknown but I hope this tragedy brings attention to mental illness and suicide rates, and that Chase will be able to give back in the future, We pray that as he goes through his healing process, he has more forward steps than backwards, and that he eventually is able to return to some semblance of the loving father, husband, son, family member we all know and love. Chase will be placed on disability. The application process has been started but no one knows when that will be completed or when he will be eligible to receive those funds.
His Donations
The immediate need is for household expenses, and obtaining counseling for Kiley and Caroline. The girls will not have access to the school counselor over the summer. Chase will be in hospital for several months. When he is stable, he will be admitted to the rehab hospital, and after that he may be admitted to a mental health facility but NOT where he had previously been. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that does not happen! Once he is discharged home, he will continue to require 24/7 care for quite some time. Some of the funds raised will be used to hire a visiting nurse/medical assistant to come in a couple of times per week. All donations will be used for my nephew's immediate family's needs only.
I would like to partner with a non-profit in the near future and learn how to bring awareness to these two very important topics. Suicide is now an epidemic. Once Chase sufficiently recovers and they are back to earning a living, any remaining funds will be donated to a mental health charity.
Please share Chase's story, please be vigilant and pay attention to your own family members, you never know when a tragedy will occur. Please help stop the stigma of mental illness. It shouldn't be whispered about. Please help.
#ChaseTheStigma
By the grace of God, Chase survived. Now his wife and two daughters need help with the medical bills that will come and their immediate need is for assistance with household expenses. Can you help?
To those who choose to read the rest of Chase's story, please know that the details are not shared to sensationalize his struggle but are to inform you of the very real and frightening struggle that mental illness brings.
His Rescue
Thankfully, Chase gave his wife enough information so that the police and rescue workers were able to find his car that evening. After 3+ hours of looking for him, the search was called off and the ambulance left. It was 11 p.m., too dangerous for the rescue workers and the helicopter team to continue in the mountains. The best man at his wedding was there, along with Chase's father-in-law, and they pleaded with the rescue team to check one final trail. Approximately 15 people went down the only trail that hadn't been searched. This last trail led to the base of a waterfall and that's where he was found, face down. Two strong men carried him up that trail, placed him in the back of their truck, and drove him to where the helicopter could pick him up to transport him to the hospital. The cold temperature by the waterfall saved him by putting him into a "deep freeze". His heart rate slowed, which slowed the bleeding and caused his blood to clot. He was breathing. It was a miracle! The neurosurgeon on call that night was someone my sister had worked for, and he had known Chase since he was a little boy. Dr. Gardner saw my sister before going into surgery, I think that comforted her, and he fought to save Chase's life. There were many many stars aligned to save Chase that night. I believe with my whole being that his guardian angels were also there with him.
His Mental Illness
Chase was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in early Spring 2015 at the age of 31. He was hospitalized twice within the last year in a mental hospital, Patrick B. Harris, in Anderson, SC. The second time he was committed was after threatening to kill himself. His wife and his mother found a rope that he had hung in a tree in a wooded area behind the house. The hospital did nothing for him. They drugged him and placed him in front of a television. There was no therapy, no family therapy or guidance, and when he was discharged the second time, he was told by a staff member not to come back. The worst of it is that the hospital had 5 days to enter him into a database that would have flagged him as mentally ill and prevented him from purchasing a gun but they didn't. Then a few months later, on April 25, 2016, he passed a background check and legally bought a gun.
It's astonishing to think about his descent into paranoia and, it is thought, he lived almost a decade with symptoms, including multiple voices that lived in his head. The past three years have been very bad. He has to be incredibly strong to have functioned as well as he did.
No one in our family had experience with mental illness. We were, quite simply, ignorant of the signs. After researching our family history and speaking with my aunts, I didn't find any indication of mental illness on either side of our family tree. Unfortunately, Chase's father chose to walk away, he has not seen him since he was six-months-old and we have no information about his family. A genetic component is likely with this disease and there can be trigger events. I believe the death of my brother-in-law, Chase's stepfather, four and a half years ago, was one of those triggers. Chase viewed him as his father, even though he was a young teen when his mom remarried. Losing his grandfather, my dad, in 2001 was very difficult as well. Daddy was Chase's role model.
His Life
Chase was a happy little boy, typically sweet, funny, affectionate and mischievious. He was loved immensely and surrounded by family and friends. He loved baseball. He loved swimming. He loved the family wave runner they had in the mid-90s, and enthusiastically took a course on its proper operation and safety rules. Chase was so excited to be certified, and able to take it out on the lake alone. He struggled in high school, nothing serious, he just seemed unmotivated. He didn't get into a lot of trouble, loved his mom and family, was respectful and polite. He was taught manners and he used them. He wasn't a punk, he was just a typical teen boy.
He fell in love at a young age. Chase and Kisha have been together for 16 years. She is one of the strongest women I know! She loves him fiercely, and I am in awe of her capacity for love. Whenever I saw them she was smiling and affectionate, and he receiprocated. Even after his diagnosis when he wasn't taking the proper medications or taking the meds he had properly and there were struggles at home, their love was palpable.
Kisha works in a day care, and they have two daughters, Kiley-9 and Caroline-7. They do not have medical insurance or a retirement account or stocks. They need more financial support than our family can provide. Chase is a loving father and husband. He adores his daughters and his wife! He provided for them to the best of his ability. He was an involved and present father. But their daughters have now seen and heard far too much for their tender ages. I am determined that they receive the counseling that they deserve and need. This family needs help!
Chase has worked as a landscaper for the last decade, rising to a team leader position and running a crew. He continued to work after his diagnosis because of his family. He wanted to provide for them. After a few job changes he was blessed to find work with a company with immense compassion. He had a boss who held his job for him through two hospitalizations and multiple doctors appointments. The entire company knew Chase struggled but they, like many of us, had no idea what his wife and daughters were going through at home.
I've learned a lot of what was happening in the home these past few weeks. It is heartwrenching! The fact that I wasn't told how bad it was goes to show that people are even reluctant to talk about mental illness within their own families. I was always told "he's hanging in there". When we would speak on the phone he always seemed like he was struggling, but he told me he was taking his meds and when his next doctors appointment was scheduled. In reality, Chase was pacing in the house talking back to the voices in his head and kneeling in the middle of the street screaming at God, "Why aren't you helping me!" That incident ended with his 7-year-old taking him by the hand and saying, "c'mon daddy, we've got to go into the house". Both girls would get into the front seat of the car whenever he threatened to leave and never come back. They would tell their dad, "you can't leave, we're in the front seat and it's not safe to drive with us up here." That always got him out of the car and back into the house. The day before he bought the gun, he told his 7-year-old that he was going to shoot himself in the head. These children need your help.
I need you all to understand that this was not my nephew. He would NEVER hurt his children. They were always happy, loved, secure and protected children. This is what mental illness looks like. We need to erace the stigma. We need to start a real conversation! According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death among persons aged 15-34 years.
His Recovery
We feel so blessed to have Chase alive. However, we don't know what his future looks like. We don't know when he will wake up or what personality changes he will have. He had a partial frontal lobectomy upon admission. His mouth took the brunt of the explosion, most of his teeth are gone, and the sinus cavity in his forehead is gone. He may lose sight in one eye but his eyes are intact, his nose, cheek bones, and ears are there and he looks like himself, who he will be when he wakes up we've yet to discover, but HE IS ALIVE!
Chase had a 5 1/2 hour surgery on May 4. Sixteen plates were placed to stabilize his orbital and mandible fractures, and to protect the brain. The surgeon also had to clean up some necrotic brain tissue. He was moved out of Neuro ICU on Friday, May 13. He still isn't awake and since surgery hasn't moved with purpose, as he had been doing prior to surgery. The doctors say, "give it time", it's due to the "anesthesia from surgery". His pneumonia and fevers are resolving, and other infections are too. He was evaluated for the physical rehabilitation hospital last week. A physical therapist has started to sit him up, his eyes flew open when that first happened, and they are moving his arms and legs to work his muscles that are starting to atrophy.
His Family
This past Monday, my sister, Chase's mom, was let go from her new job. She was within a 90-day probationary period. The first two weeks of Chase's hospitalization, my sister was treated well, with understanding and compassion. Then she returned to work with adjusted hours to allow her time to visit the hospital. ICU has quiet time with no visitors between 6-9a and 6-9p. Those hours made it difficult for her to visit between the normal business hours of 8-5. Now that he is going to survive, it seems as though that compassion no longer exists. Fortunately, she will be okay financially for a little while, and will look for another job in a few months. Now she can focus on being with Chase and splitting the days at the hospital with Kisha. That will allow Kisha to work a couple of mornings per week, meet the girls when they arrive home on the school bus, help with their homework, and just spend time with them. The school counselor is meeting with both girls regularly. Kiley understands more as she is older and she is affected the most. Caroline doesn't talk about it much other than praying for her daddy. We received professional advise on what to tell the girls, which was, his disease made him careless and he accidentally shot himself. I'm sure the girls talk among themselves and they are being allowed to ask questions when they have them. Everyone pitches in to keep their daily life as normal as possible.
His Future
A lot is unknown but I hope this tragedy brings attention to mental illness and suicide rates, and that Chase will be able to give back in the future, We pray that as he goes through his healing process, he has more forward steps than backwards, and that he eventually is able to return to some semblance of the loving father, husband, son, family member we all know and love. Chase will be placed on disability. The application process has been started but no one knows when that will be completed or when he will be eligible to receive those funds.
His Donations
The immediate need is for household expenses, and obtaining counseling for Kiley and Caroline. The girls will not have access to the school counselor over the summer. Chase will be in hospital for several months. When he is stable, he will be admitted to the rehab hospital, and after that he may be admitted to a mental health facility but NOT where he had previously been. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that does not happen! Once he is discharged home, he will continue to require 24/7 care for quite some time. Some of the funds raised will be used to hire a visiting nurse/medical assistant to come in a couple of times per week. All donations will be used for my nephew's immediate family's needs only.
I would like to partner with a non-profit in the near future and learn how to bring awareness to these two very important topics. Suicide is now an epidemic. Once Chase sufficiently recovers and they are back to earning a living, any remaining funds will be donated to a mental health charity.
Please share Chase's story, please be vigilant and pay attention to your own family members, you never know when a tragedy will occur. Please help stop the stigma of mental illness. It shouldn't be whispered about. Please help.
#ChaseTheStigma
Organiser and beneficiary
Cindy Borden Mercer
Organiser
Decatur, GA
Gretchen Halberstadt
Beneficiary
