Member Of SAE Suffers Serious Head Injury, Brothers Start GoFundMe To Help Pay Medical Bills

Harrison Lee11 years ago

Whether you know the person or not, it is always sad to hear about a member of our society suffering an injury that threatens their life. Unfortunately for the brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at UNC-Charlotte, they’re currently dealing with exactly that. While at his townhouse on Thursday night, Nicholas Newberry — a member of SAE at UNC-Charlotte — fell down his stairs and suffered a head injury. His brothers immediately called paramedics and they rushed him to the hospital where he was transferred to the ICU.

The family has been posting updates on his condition through a community Facebook page.

March 21st at 12:36 A.M.
They did a CT scan upon arrival that showed multiple skull fractures and a little bruising on the brain. At 6am, they repeated the CT scan again for comparison. The 2nd scan showed significantly more swelling and bruising. At 9am the neurosurgeon then did an emergency craniectomy. (This is where they remove skull bone to try to relieve the pressure and swelling) He got out of surgery around 1030am, but we could not see him until 230pm. They have him in an medicine induced coma.

March 21st at 2:46 P.M.
After Nick had the CT scan this morning, the trauma team decided that with the additional brain bleeding seen, that Nick needed to be paralyzed. They do this by giving him the same medication they would give a patient to go to sleep for routine/elective surgeries. They are hoping that him not having sporadic body movements will help with the swelling. He seems to be resting better now.

March 21st at 8:11 P.M.
So Nick pretty much had no changes today up until 5pm. Then his blood pressure and ICP pressure started elevating to levels they don’t like to see. They have given him more sedative and started blood pressure meds to try and lower these levels.

Today at 9:00 A.M.
So they finally got his blood pressure and ICP levels down around 12pm last night. Around 2am his oxygen levels started declining, so they had to increase his ventilator levels. Those finally came back to normal around 5am. They are now worried about infection in his chest. They are not wanting him bothered at all today, to keep the levels down. But mentioned they might do a bronchoscopy (camera to look in lungs) if his oxygen levels start declining again.

Nick faces multiple surgeries, a long road of rehab to recovery, and a high medical bill. Someone associated with UNC-Charlotte reached out to us so we could let you know that the brothers of NC Beta have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help support the family in their efforts to pay for the bills for their out-of-pocket maximum. In just over 13 hours since the campaign started, they have raised over $5,000. I encourage you to make any sort of donation you can. Every little bit helps.

The brothers have also started a fundraising campaign with all the profits going towards Nick’s family. They are selling these bracelets:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Newberry family, his friends, and the brothers of SAE. Get well soon.

To donate, click HERE..

[via Facebook]