Horrific Jet Ski Accident leaves family in desperate need

Update- Surgery on 8/20 to reconstruct Cams face. They’ll use wires and screw in metal plates to fix his cheekbone and orbital socket. They’ll have to re-break and align his nose. Hopefully after his cheekbone and eye are in proper position, it’ll allow for his nose to heal properly. Cam is scared. I’m scared. Please pray for him and his healing❤️

Cam & his mom, Julie, taken on his recent 18th birthday.

Klete & Lindsey Keller.

Bruising and swelling behind his ear from head trauma.

Cams baby brother thankful he’s alive.

Cams younger brother thankful he’s breathing.

This is how Camden normally looks. Vibrant and happy and spreading joy to all he comes in contact with.

Shortly after being extubated. He didn’t understand where he was or what had happened.

Significant facial swelling from the fractures and trauma.

Intubated in ICU. Julie spoke to him constantly and stayed by his side for 36 hours straight with no sleep. She watched every detail of his care.

Cams older brother holding his hand in the ED as family got to see him for the first time.

This is how family saw him for the first time.

On Wednesday July 31st my cousin Camden was in a horrible jet ski accident near crab island in Destin, Florida. He was going approximately 70-75mph when he hit a large wake. The ski dipped down and then flew straight up, nose of the ski facing the sky. The ski came down, with the back right end hitting the water and ejecting Camden. He was thrown 20-25ft from the ski and approximately 10ft high. He came down impacting the water with his face. Thankfully he was wearing a life jacket. He was floating face down in the water, as it filled with blood, for approximately 4-5 min before an Olympic swimmer, Klete Keller, that was on his honeymoon was able to get to him. Camden was rolled over, was completely grey and dead. CPR was performed and he was thankfully resuscitated. Camden was rushed to the hospital in critical condition with head trauma, facial trauma and lungs filled with the Gulf water.

Afterwards my Aunt Julie got a phone call no parent wants, her son Camden was in the hospital in critical condition with significant head trauma and she needed to get there as quickly and safely as possible.

When she arrived he was on a ventilator with significant head trauma. The doctors had already performed a bronchoscopy removing Gulf water and sand from his lungs. They have since found that he has three Brain bleeds, one of which started to evolve but thankfully it did not continue to get worse. He has multiple orbital and facial fractures that, at a later date, will require surgery. He also has multiple lung contusions. He has pretty significant muscle strains and injuries along with a severe left brain TBI.

Due to the severity of Camden’s injuries, my Aunt who is a Paramedic has had to step away from work. She saves other people’s lives on a daily basis and makes a difference with so many other families. Now she is trying to take care of saving her own son and nurse him back to health. That being said she will be without pay for a while and is the sole income for her family. This has caused so much additional stress. She recently switched to Santa Rosa County EMS. She’s not been with them long enough to qualify for FMLA. She also has two younger boys that she’s still raising and taking care of as well. This has been a life changing event for their family. She is trying to keep from losing everything while still holding her family together and helping Camden through this horrific process.

I am asking you to please donate to help her with bill’s, medical bills, therapy and simply surviving this ordeal. She is needing our community to be there for her now❤️

If you can not donate please just say a prayer for them. Please share this with your friends so we can get this out there. You must copy the link to share.

Thank you so much!

UPDATE 8/7/24 Camden was readmitted yesterday to the hospital. He has a pretty significant left sided TBI traumatic brain injury. This is having affects on his speech, coordination, spelling, writing, moods etc. he still has significant edema and subdural hemorrhage noted to his frontal lobe. Apparently it can take up to a year to slowly get back to normal.

Additonally, we were advised that his facial fractures are more than originally advised and they are all displaced. We will find out about surgery on 8/15.

Camden is breathing well. Which is a huge blessing to all of us. He still cannot chew food, sadly he’s lost so much weight through all of this.

His pain between his head and face is still getting up to a 8, and putting him in tears.

Swelling has significantly improved but he has difficulty walking due to severe pain to his tailbone and hamstrings ( the left is worse ).