Help Aaron and his family with their medical debt

Many of you probably know Aaron Bachelder.

If not personally, then professionally as a musician and teacher. Possibly by his reputation. Even if you have never heard of Aaron, ask around. He is a kind and patient person. He is generous with his time and love.

I cannot say that he and I grew up together. We have had maybe 30-odd interactions in almost 20 years. He is my neighbor.

I am here today on his behalf because every single time I have interacted with Aaron he has just been the best person in the room.

He, likes to help. He has information but he does not clout you with it. He is warm and receptive and makes space for you to be yourself. We could all be a bit more like Aaron.

Now Aaron and his family need some help and consideration.

In the last 18-months he has had one medical fiasco after another. It started with elusive spinal issues. In the midst of diagnosis he had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The doctors had him on PT extensively and that surgery interrupted the process. The therapy only modestly helped while interrupting income.

Then he was encouraged to undergo a series of injections that insurance initially was purported to cover. It was not ultimately covered, and it did not work either. This event set Aaron and his family further back.

After that, a work injury and bad luck led to umbilical hernia surgery. More money and more time focus diverted through the Fall of 2021.

In March this year, he tripped and snapped his humerus at the ball clean through. This incident required the use of a sling for six weeks. Weeks of struggling through work. Remember, he is a musician. Speaking as someone who once had a hairline fracture of my humerus, it still pains me to this day. I cannot imagine a complete break.

Later, possibly because of the fall and possibly because of the simple failure rate of any surgery, Aaron’s hernia re-ruptured, requiring surgery in August. It was much more extensive compared to the first procedure. Indeed, more expensive. A mesh was placed to hold everything as it was meant to be beneath the abdominal muscles. It is excruciating surgery. More time that he could not be with his students. Debts mounting. More difficulty working and teaching as a result.

Finally, as some of you probably saw, on October 11th, Aaron's large dog bolted out of the front door. He spotted some prey. Aaron grabbed his collar, and the dog dragged him down a flight of concrete steps. This incident shattered his scapula and eight ribs. Potentially it has damaged the hernia repair from August. More PT will be required. The costs mount again.

This run of bad luck could be any of us at any time. Sometimes insurmountable obstacles appear one after another. We don’t necessarily have to make a wrong move. We don’t have to make some sucker’s bet. Just become subject to a streak of raw, awful luck in sequence.

Heather and Aaron are good people. They are lifelong helpers. They deserve to see the same evidenced back to them. They did not ask me to set this up. I came to them. Hell, I fairly pestered Aaron about it. He doesn’t want to lean on people. He doesn’t want to take from another’s plate.

This is not pride. I can assure you. He just does not want to take. Aaron, as ever, wants to give. He wants to teach and to provide.

I am here to ask you all, as a community, to help him to have time to heal so that he can continue to teach.

Many hands make light work, they say. So, my ask is three-fold.

First, please contribute to this fund.

Second, please move it in front of as many eyes as possible.

Finally, consider reaching out to see how they are doing and what other ways we can help. Do you own a venue and want to organize a concert? Do you want to donate a portion of sales from something you make on a special occasion?

I hope that if you can get through this wall of text and forgive my lack of brevity, you will consider helping this gentle and kind person get back on his feet and do what he truly loves.

Please reach out to us if you have any ideas or just to let Aaron and Heather know you are there and that you care. Maybe message to share a memory of your times with Aaron that let him know how special of a guy he is.

Because he is, you can always detect it when you are near him.

I will be seeding this effort with $500 to get us started. Let’s see what we can do.

Thanks,

-Blake Stewart