Spencer & Shelly Spear of Charleston, IL

The Spear family, Spencer, Shelly, Stratton (8), and Sytha (6), have experienced several traumatic, significant, and ongoing medical events since February of 2026 and greatly appreciate your prayers, positive vibes, and your consideration to assist with the financial burden of mental health facility admissions/hospitalizations, ER Trips, Medical Transports, medical procedures/examinations, spinal surgery, follow-up care, doctor appointment copays, necessary prescription medications, healing supplies and therapies, and fuel costs involved.

Shelly experienced three separate, multiple day hospitalizations to behavior health units/facilities (Sarah Bush Lincoln in Mattoon, IL and The Pavilion in Champaign, IL). The first was a 4-day admission at the end of February that resulted from a new psychiatrist’s inexplicable and significant reduction in medication that had been in-place and successful for years, coupled with a rare but severe reaction to a newly prescribed medication that resulted in a mental health crisis and transport to the ER.

The 2nd and 3rd behavioral health unit/facility admissions resulted in mid-April (6 days) and separately, in late-April (still ongoing) due in large part to the resulting traumatic response and anxiety/panic attacks, along with adjustments and readjustments to her daily medication regimen in an effort to re-establish a healthy baseline to promote recovery and return to normalcy.

Shelly and Spencer will require both short- and long-term medical interventions and supports through psychiatry, counseling, doctor appointments, medication management, and trauma-processing interventions to process and heal from these experiences.

Additionally, Spencer sustained a neck injury that occurred in early-February. After three walk-in clinic visits with unsuccessful treatments/prescriptions attempted to address pain, X-rays and an MRI were completed through orthopedics. Through a referral appointment with a neurosurgeon, it was ultimately discovered that the injury was a severe herniated disc in the neck, and an artificial disc replacement surgery took place on April 17th in Bloomington, IL. Spencer will complete short- and long-term treatment/recovery, and possible physical therapy.

Spencer, an 8th grade math teacher at Charleston Middle School, and Shelly, an instructor in the English Department at Eastern Illinois University, are both on FMLA from work for the remainder of the school year/spring semester during their treatments and recoveries. Stratton and Sytha both attend regular counseling appointments and have been troopers as they have continued their school and home routines as much as possible. They have accrued minimal absences during this time, in large part, to the love, support, and daily assistance and transportation from their grandparents, Tom and Donna Spear, who have made weekly trips to Charleston from their home in Hoopeston, IL.