12-30-25 UPDATE!

I'm doing well, staying with a good friend while I try to navigate the logistics of a new state. I'm in New Mexico!

I would first off like to thank Larry for putting this together in my honor. The kindness and effort he has put in has truly impressed me.

To all who donated or wanted to, thank you. Thank you for thinking of me and passing so many blessings my way!

I'm so excited to try at all this healing work again! I will post a video on YouTube when I'm feeling up to it.

Again - thank you my lovely humans!

-- Emily

UPDATE: Your generous support has already helped Emily in so many ways! I will share more details when appropriate, but just know that she is enjoying sunshine and warm, dry air, which is great for her immune system. She is staying with a friend as she begins the process of looking for an apartment. AND! - She has an appointment with a new doctor! Woot Woot!

I cannot express how truly grateful Emily is, and I am, for all of your help. She was literally down to her last $6, while on the road, when the first transfer from GoFundMe came through. I have so much love for you all. Thank you, bless you, and have a wonderful holiday season - Larry

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Doctors say Emily Brooks might die soon, but she wants a second opinion.

Emily, who is an all-around good human and should be kept on this planet much longer than 42 years, has suffered from extremely rare and catastrophic medical traumas, which require excellent treatment. Her specific situation has only been recorded a few times in medical history.

She needs an expert specialist. But first, let’s get her an apartment.

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My name is Larry. I have been lucky to call Emily a friend for nearly 20 years, and she is a big reason I ended up in Colorado. She is a hard worker, a great friend, a fantastic artist, a music encyclopedia (she knows all the new stuff before you do), and above all, a survivor. She’s never asked for a handout. But a botched surgery and a compounding series of emergencies has brought us here.

Emily Brooks loves to dance, but right now it’s too dangerous – physical activity or even too large a meal could lead to more surgery and possible death.

Your support in this fundraiser would help her get stable housing in Colorado and begin to pay for the next phase of her healthcare.

In January 2023, Emily had her first of three life-saving surgeries. A doctor in Montana, where she is from, removed an 18-cm cyst (the size of a mini-basketball) from her abdomen, while also performing an emergency hysterectomy. Dangerous complications arose, but after four days in the hospital, she was released. She hoped it was all over.

The following five paragraphs include a description of severe medical trauma. If you are sensitive to this topic, please skip to the dashed line to continue reading below.

A few months after the initial operation, she was sweeping the floor at work when she felt she had to go to the bathroom. Instead, the surgical sutures catastrophically failed, and Emily’s body self-eviscerated.

Her injuries were severe, rare, and frankly unreal. The emergency-room doctor didn’t understand what he was seeing until a surgeon walked in, pointed out the visible organs, and ordered Emily into an operating room to save her life a second time.

In February 2025, she was at home when she began experiencing stomach pain. She hoped it was just food poisoning or the flu. Nope. Emily called 911 from the floor. She had severe internal bleeding and grapefruit- and lemon-sized hemorrhagic cysts.

The first hospital put her back in the ambulance “because it was too much of an emergency,” she told me. “I didn’t know it was possible for someone to be too hurt for a hospital.” Paramedics drove an hour to a second Montana hospital, where doctors cut through masses of scar tissue to save her life a third time.

Her last two surgeries were absolute emergencies, which meant doctors were unable to properly plan and prepare. Now her insides are now riddled with scar tissue, which is painful, slow-healing, and could cause an intestinal rupture.

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Emily has worked hard to rebuild her life and her psyche. She is exhausted. Trying to sort through these horrors in therapy, she asked the clinician about finding group counseling, to connect with a community of similar survivors. The therapist told her to seek out combat veterans.

Emily Brooks joins a long line of women hurt by bad reproductive health care. Every woman who undergoes a hysterectomy must sign waivers, which include a line about an extremely rare possible side effect. This is that side effect. Multiple malpractice lawyers told her there’s no case for a suit under Montana law. She will never get a dime in compensation for what has happened, for the stark inhumanity of her situation.

After her second surgery, Emily eventually returned to work, where managers who knew what she was going through had her unloading 5,000 pounds of freight each week. After the third surgery, she told her bosses such work could kill her. Her hours dropped, which took away her health insurance. In today’s job market, she has found it impossible to get a clerical job or other non-physical work and support herself.

Social workers have told Emily the process to get disability will take longer than she might have to live.

This past year, doctors told her there was nothing more they could do to prevent another medical event, which would likely prove fatal. She decided to go on one more road trip, to try to accept her death.

Emily Brooks went to Yellowstone and sat beside the wild river. She tried to make peace with the end.

But a thought persisted – maybe a new doctor, a new specialist, a new set of eyes on her thick medical records. Maybe she doesn’t have to leave so soon. Perhaps she could listen to more new music. And maybe she could dance again, really shake it all out.

Emily couldn’t give up.

She returned to Colorado, where she once lived. She knows people here. But she only has a family of friends for support, and right now she has no money, means, or housing.

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Emily is trying to build a foundation, including a place to live, food, health insurance, a primary-care doctor, and eventually, hopefully, a great specialist. That’s what this money is for.

And if her health declines, the remaining funds will be used to allow this wonderful person to live out her time with some comfort.

GoFundMe graciously allows withdrawals before the final goal is met, so this campaign will have a direct and immediate impact on her.

The grit and grace Emily Brooks has shown in this situation is an example for the rest of us. She is a giant. She is exactly the type of human we want to keep among us. And her gratitude for any help is bottomless.

I know many people are facing difficult times. I ask two things. If you have any resources to give, please consider helping Emily, even in small amounts. And if you can’t spare a donation, please share this story – not only because it might reach someone who can donate, but because increased visibility might bring Emily to some expert who is up to the great challenge of healing her.

If you know a specialist, or a Colorado-based health-care advocate who can work on her behalf, please reach out to me, Larry Kline, of Aspen, Colorado, through this fundraiser or on Facebook or Instagram. I will connect you.

Let’s try to save Emily Brooks, maybe even get her back out on the dance floor. We’ll all be better for it.

Bless you, and thank you.