Help Jamie Get Back on His Feet

-HELP JAMIE GET BACK ON HIS FEET-

My name is Kristin, and I’ve spent my life looking up to my older brother, Jamie. He was always the one I turned to for advice on friends and life – and he was always right. Jamie has a knack for seeing the good in people, or helping me navigate when things got tough.

This is how he’s lived his life – giving me and our three younger brothers someone to turn to. But his life of service did not end with his family. He’s always served others, spending years organizing food deliveries and developing relationships with restaurants to secure and deliver food to the homeless.

Jamie spent the majority of his time in Columbia’s beloved Finlay Park where he could help the homeless. He would bring the food procured from the restaurants, and often put together backpacks he would fill with phone chargers, nonperishable food and clean water to give to whomever he saw in need. Sometimes, while out working as an Uber driver, he’d stop by the local Taco Bell to buy large quantities of food to put in the hands of the hungry.

He always felt his most important job, though, was listening. Listening to the stories of the homeless and how they got there, without judgement. Jamie saw a need for people to feel heard and seen. And as important as feeding the hungry is, listening to their stories was always a part of Jamie’s mission.

Jamie was diagnosed with diabetes in 2012, and at the time he weighed 264 pounds. Ever since the diagnosis, he has worked hard to turn his health around. Taking in the gravity of the diagnosis, he lost 100 pounds and became an avid hiker. It seemed he had it under control and was striving to live a happy, healthy life.

In late August, he discovered his efforts weren’t enough, and his service to others came to a halt when his diabetes got the best of his left foot. A horrible bone infection formed. At first, he couldn’t tell how bad it was – that’s what diabetes does, it mutes the pain, tricking you into thinking the injury is minor. Then came the real pain, and the view of his foot showed ravaged skin and viewable bone and tendons.

When he went to the wonderful doctors at Prisma Health Baptist Parkridge Hospital, they thought they’d be amputating his leg below the knee. Jamie’s life was on the line. The infection easily could have killed him. His fever was spiking and it was minute to minute.

Fortunately, the surgeons saw an opportunity to save his foot, removing large swathes of skin, muscle, tendons and fascia.

Now, Jamie’s left with a foot that is unusable for the foreseeable future, and he will need multiple surgeries to repair the damage. Bone is still visible. There is very little muscle or connective tissue left. He needs skin grafts and wound vacs changed every 48 hours to keep the infection from spreading again. We are still hoping to save him from amputation and trying to prevent further infection.

Unfortunately, while Jamie started working at a job he loved four months before all this happened, it wasn’t long enough for medical insurance to kick in, and he was left to handle this with no insurance, and now, no job.

It was at this point when we realized we needed to call on his friends, and the community.

He is not eligible for full Medicaid, just preventative Medicaid, and the premium for his insurance alone is more than $800 per month. That insurance will only cover his medication for the infections and the diabetes.

What Jamie needs is Acute Care Rehab for ‘round the clock care, as he has no family living nearby. While he will likely never go back to living the full active life he had, this will help him to walk again and work again. The cost for Acute Care Rehab is between $20,000-$30,000 per month, and the hope is that Jamie would need no more than 6 weeks there.

His regular bills are about $3000 per month, just so he can keep his apartment and car for when he gets back to his life.

We know this is a lot to ask of our friends, family, and community. Any little bit helps. Please join us in supporting Jamie, who has worked so hard for others and now he stands as the one in need.

We are all so very grateful for anything you can contribute.

Thank you so very much,

Kristin and all of Jamie’s family