Please Support Gabe's Recovery After Tragic Accident

I am setting this up on behalf of a friend who has suffered and continues to suffer a terrible tragedy. My very best friends Gabe and Lauren got married on September 21, 2024. My husband Mike and I were a part of their beautiful day.

They left 4 days later to travel to Montego Bay, Jamaica for their dream honeymoon. Two hours after arriving at their resort, Gabe slipped and hit the back of his head on the tile and stone floor in their room. This caused him to go into a seizure and Lauren called for an ambulance. He was taken to a private hospital in Montego Bay, where the refused to take their travel and global health care insurance and would only accept cash or credit card. After frantic phone calls home and making financial arrangements in the late evening, Gabe finally got a CT scan three hours after arriving at the hospital. The results showed he had a large brain bleed that needed to be addressed with emergency surgery immediately.

This hospital informed Lauren they weren't ready to do the surgery at this time and he would have to be transferred to a public hospital, where they told Lauren the surgeon was there and ready to go. Lauren made the decision to transport him which took two more hours to get Gabe to the other hospital. They finally got there 5 hours after his fall and the new hospital had no correspondence with the previous hospital and didn't know what was going on. The surgeons weren't even in the hospital.

By the time the surgeon got to the hospital and was ready to take Gabe to surgery, it was 7 1/2 hours after his fall. He had already slipped into a coma for 3 hours at this point. After surgery, they didn't have an ICU to take Gabe to, so he had to be transferred back to the first private hospital. At this point Gabe was placed on a ventilator. They wouldn't take him unless Lauren paid a five figure deposit, which she had to arrange back home at 5am. They finally transferred Gabe to the hospital.

At this time, Lauren tried to set up an air ambulance to fly him to Miami, since this was the closest state he was cleared to fly to. This took over 24 hours to accomplish because they needed to find an accepting hospital and dealing with the effects of the hurricane. After paying another five figure amount to get him released from the private Jamaican hospital, they flew to Fort Lauderdale where he was admitted to Broward Medical Health Center. He was in their ICU for a week getting a tracheotomy and further stabilization. They found out that he broke a vertebrae in his thoracic spine. At this point Gabe is still in a coma and continued to be on a ventilator since surgery.

Lauren had to arrange for a second air ambulance to bring him home to Erie, PA, where he is now at UPMC Hamot in their Trauma ICU unit, still in a coma and on a ventilator. He underwent a second brain surgery and abdominal surgery to put a feeding tube in. If he survives, he has months or years of rehabilitation ahead of him.

We're asking for any help you can give to support Gabe and Lauren during this difficult time. This would help with past and future hospital bills and further rehabilitation of Gabe to hopefully get him back to where he was before the fall. Please keep him and Lauren in your thoughts and prayers, Any support in monetary and/or prayer is greatly appreciated. God bless you all!