Help Eric Begley's Boys after losing him.

*updated

8/24* Hi. My name is Megan. My oldest brother, Eric Begley, is only 44 years old. On the night of August 21st, Eric was talking with his 2 young boys when he tragically had a massive stroke.

911 was called immediately, and he was taken to Holston Valley where the stroke was quickly confirmed, and he was airlifted to Johnson City Medical Center for a life-saving operation to retrieve the blood clot.

Most of the clot was able to be removed, but not all of it. After that surgery, he was responding to touch and he had eye movement, but at 11:40 am on 8/22/25, he stopped responding completely, his pupil reaction was nonexistent, and one pupil was completely blown.

He was then taken down for a CT scan which revealed that he had a massive brain bleed. He underwent an emergency operation to remove part of his skull to relieve pressure. Surgery took longer than expected due to the size of the bleed.

After the 2nd surgery, he was slightly responsive to touch. Then at 7 pm, everything stopped again. A stat CT was ordered which revealed more bleeding, and he had more strokes. He also had a new brain stem injury.

The drs had one last CT scan completed on 8/24/25 before any further decisions were made for Eric’s care. The CT revealed that the right side of his brain is completely dead, and the swelling and bleeding are so bad that he no longer has ventricles (valleys and crevices) on his brain.

Today 8/24/25, we collectively decided to donate Eric’s organs once we found out he was a candidate for donation. For major organ donation, he can help save up to 8 lives and if you knew my brother, you know he’d give you the shirt on his back to help someone.

Tomorrow 8/25/25, he will undergo testing for the donation process and recipients for the organs will be found. Come Tuesday (as of right now) we will honor my brother with the honor walk on his way down to the OR for the final time.

It still seems so unreal that my big brother will no longer be here in the physical body. 44 short years here in earth seems like no time at all.

Y’all, please continue to keep us in your prayers in the coming days. Especially his boys. His oldest helped us making the donation decision today because he knows his dad would want to help others.

Those who know Eric, know him to be a funny goofball with a huge heart. He loves his boys more than anything.

Eric is the only provider for his family. This GoFundMe is for his boys, Brett (16) and Barron (6).

If you can’t donate, please share this.