Support Scotty's Fight Against Cancer

On September 15th, 2024, my dear friend and co-worker, James Scott Bates “Scotty”, life forever changed. What started out as not feeling quite right, dizziness, confusion, and instability led to him being admitted to the hospital. After numerous tests and scans, the doctors found masses on the neck, pancreas, and kidney (his only kidney). More tests, endoscopy, and biopsy revealed pancreatic and kidney cancer. He has also been diagnosed with myasthenia gravis syndrome.

Scotty began battling loss of tongue use, swallowing, and talking, which led to being incubated . Several weeks of hospitalizations with his wife Michele by his side; the long-time Hamilton Fire Department Chief continued to battle with his regular positive loving self.

Scotty is the friend you can always count on for anything. His love for life, his friends, his community, and especially his family is endearing.

Scotty has been a volunteer firefighter for his home town of Hamilton for 33 yrs and loved his job as a volunteer so much he has been serving as fire chief for 8 of those years. He’s seen a lot, helped with Oso landslide and even helped deliver babies. Scotty has been a true dedicated employee for Freedom Roads (Camping World) for over 28 yrs now. He is truly missed there.

After starting his cancer treatment, we all were feeling optimistic, and Scotty was determined to beat this!

Then, diverticulitis hit. The doctors had to stop his chemo treatment to fight the infection and undergo surgery to remove part of his lower intestine as there was a quarter-size hole found.

With a colostomy bag intact, we again watched him start to regain strength and recover. After a few weeks, he got to go home just in time for Christmas, and we were all so relieved and grateful.

Yesterday, however, Scotty was transported back to the hospital for emergency surgery. He's had complications from the last procedure. He was not getting blood flow to the colon, which caused it to die out and caused his body to become septic. He is currently out of surgery, on a ventilator in ICU. He will be having another surgery on Sunday, where they will check the remaining colon and close the area. They will be putting in an NG tube for feeding, to give his body time to heal.

He's expected to be in ICU for 7 to 10 days, then moved to another floor for a couple more weeks.

They have a long haul ahead of them, but he's a fighter and has an amazing support system.

We are asking for help with the following expenses:

Medical bills from current and future surgeries, ongoing treatment, and rehabilitation. While he does have insurance, there are still expenses unfortunately not covered.

While he is currently incubated , his FMLA just ran out. His wife, under all the stress, is working to get him an extension while they battle to get his long-term disability coverage approved.

Any donation that you find in your heart to give will be greatly appreciated. We thank you in advance. Please keep Scotty and his family in your prayers during this critical time.

God Bless and thank you for taking time to read this.