Hi. My name is Megan. My oldest brother, Eric Begley, was 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.

We decided for organ donation but he didn’t pass within the 60 minute limit after being off the ventilator. He took his final breath in his earthly body on 8/28/25 at 12:10pm.

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

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

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

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