Support Joshua Hammond's Medical Expenses

My brother Joshua Hammond desperately needs your generosity & support. On Saturday, June 18th at 7:30 am, after being extremely ill for days, a 911 call was made and Josh was taken by an ambulance to a Hospital in Santa Maria, CA where he had been living. By 1 am Sunday morning, he was rushed into emergency surgery to remove an abscess that had formed on his spinal cord in his neck. He was diagnosed with a spinal infection, meningitis. The infection had spread rapidly, damaging the spinal cord & leaving two abscess’ on his spine. The doctors performed a C2 – T1 Laminectomy to remove the abscess’. To put it simply, they had to remove parts of his spine & place metal rods in his neck.

We were later informed that he was septic when he arrived at the hospital and was already paralyzed from the chest down before the surgery even began and it was “unlikely” he would ever use his legs again. WE ARE STILL HOPEFUL THAT HE WILL BE THE EXCEPTION AND PROVE THE DR.’S WRONG.

We were told the infection started with strep throat, which then turned into pneumococcal pneumonia, which then turned into meningitis, which resulted in such a serious spinal infection.

Josh has been in critical condition in the ICU ever since the surgery. He is on a ventilator, completely unable to breathe on his own. They have him heavily sedated to keep him comfortable & to keep him from fighting the ventilator. Because of the sedation, he is mostly unconscious and rarely opens his eyes or tries to move his arms. When his eyes do open it’s difficult to know if he’s aware of his surroundings or to know what he’s feeling. It is heartbreaking to see. He has had some positive moments where he is more alert and able to “follow orders” like squeezing the nurse/doctor’s hand. As they slowly reduce the sedatives he has more & more of these moments which is encouraging. He is also on multiple strong antibiotics to fight the infections. Luckily the infection is no longer in his blood but he continues to spike a fever which has been extremely high throughout his time in ICU. The doctors continue to do everything they can to manage it.

We won’t fully know the damage done until Josh wakes up but as of now the doctors are not optimistic that he will ever regain feeling in his legs. His right hand also seems to be paralyzed but again, we won’t know the extent of it until he wakes up. What we do know for sure is that Josh has a long road of recovery ahead of him & the doctors say he will be in the hospital for at least 6 months to a year.

Anything can happen so we are hopeful that Josh will fight like hell & the damage to his body isn’t as bad as we think. We are all praying for his recovery & we ask you to pray for him as well.

We are also asking to donate any amount you can to help Josh pay for his medical bills & for all of the help he is going to need after his life in the Hospital. He will need Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and long-term medical care & treatment. Even the smallest donation can go a long way in helping his recovery.

I know there will be some that donate without ever having met Josh and to those I want to tell you a little bit about him. Josh truly has a heart of gold. He deeply cares about his friends and family and is more sentimental than he leads on. He has an amazing sense of humor, although not everyone gets it. Personally, sometimes his jokes go right over my head but that’s just Josh. Special & unique in every way. His passion in life is playing the guitar, song writing, performing and making original music. He has an amazing voice & I’ll post some of his videos on here so you can experience it as well. He is a true natural.

For those of you who DO know Josh, please leave a comment about your experiences and memories with him so that others can get a true sense of what an amazing person he is. I’m sure you know as well as us that Josh struggled sometimes as many creative souls do, but he kept fighting and was always trying to be better and live the life we all know he deserved. He is determined. I mean this is the guy who rode his bicycle across country to pursue his dreams AND meet his biological mother so I think determined is an understatement.

Josh is young, 34 years old with a lot of life ahead of him. Please help him by donating, praying & being a support system for him. He deserves it.

I will post updates as we go and you can reach out at any time if you have any questions. Please contact me if you would like to donate via Venmo or PayPal. My Venmo is llisa84. 

Thank you.