Hi Friends,

My 21 year old nephew Lucas Collins is in the middle of a scary medical situation, where he is fighting bacterial meningitis in the hospital. I have never done a Go Fund Me campaign before, but our family needs some help, especially with medical bills. Also, as Luke hopefully fully recovers and leaves the hospital, he will not be able to work or drive for several months, so this campaign will assist with his daily living expenses.

This is what is happening, per my niece Nina, who he lives with in Lakeview, Oregon:

Friday afternoon (Nov 5) my brother Luke had a Grand Mal Seizure. He was taken to the hospital where he wasn’t improving. He was unable to form a logical sentences and most words coming out of his mouth weren’t even words and complaining of an excruciating headache. It is unusual for your speech not to return after a seizure. So after they contacted a neurologist in bend, he was immediately transported to bend hospital by ambulance. Saturday morning they did an MRI. The MRI concluded that Luke has meningitis (infection of the brain). The infection is over the part of the brain that controls speech, so that is why he can’t talk and they believe this infection caused the seizure as well. They started him on a wide variety antibiotics immediately and told us they had to do a spinal tap to figure out what kind of meningitis he had, so they could narrow down the treatment. It was determined he had bacterial meningitis that stemmed from an ear infection he has had the last week. So they started a high dose of specific antibiotic by IV and steroids for the swelling. We had to wait till today to find out if the treatment was actually working or if they would need to send Luke to Portland for brain surgery to remove the infected bone and tissue. We spoke with the neurologist this morning, as far as visual symptoms go, the DR said it seems the treatment is working but there is a pocket of fluid behind Luke’s ear drum that the antibiotics can not reach because it is through the blood stream. So they will be taking Luke back for surgery to insert a tube to help drain the infected fluid today. It will be another day before they do another scan to make sure there isn’t any other pockets of infection that aren’t getting treated.

Luke is still not able to talk much, but seems in high spirits and not nearly in as much pain. We just ask that you pray, send positive thought or whatever it is you do or believe in, for Luke. He could sure use it right now.