This story–coming to me through the Burning Man community–has so touched me, I wanted to get it out to my network. It’s a story of endurance, faith, love, and the strong power of community. Please pass this on to your networks as well. I have pieced together a summary from two blogs: one setup by family and another setup by friends.
Holli Hawthorne, 31, born and raised in Nashville, TN, is fighting for her life in India. The victim of a motorcycle accident during a planned month long vacation with boyfriend Harrison Bartlett, of New York, Holli lies in a deep coma.
Here is a recounting of the accident from her boyfriend Harrison.
My sweetheart Hollis was in a motorcycle accident here in the south of India. She has received a severe injury to her brain stem and is in a coma. She was wearing a helmet but a sort of freak occurrence put a motorcycle handle bar through the wind visor of the eyes of her helmet. She has a big print mark from the end of the handlebar on her temple and her ear was torn in half and she was immediately unconscious and bleeding from the mouth, nose and ears. I am trying to write this all down as factually as possible even though I am in tears as I write. I then did CPR, which you should all learn, on her for the next half hour consistently as she could not breath on her own. Covered in and spitting out her blood in between breaths all of the people involved in the accident fled the scene. I was stranded with someone completely unconscious in the middle of a two lane bridge outside of Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu and finally a van of German tourist pulled over and we put her in the passenger seat and I continued CPR. Three ‘hospitals’ later she was in the care she is in now. She is stable yet unresponsive beyond “involuntary movement”. She is fighting for her life and I feel that she is capable of miracles. Please keep her in your thoughts and send her all of the energy and magic and love and prayers and anything you got.
Holli’s mother and sister immediately made arrangements to fly to India and have been at Holli’s side. Through a contact, a man who works with the Indian Army offered all of his resources (even money) to help move Holli to Apollo hospital in Chennai–a facility with the capabilities to care for Holli until air transport back to the states. The next step is to med-evac Holli to Stanford University Hospital where she will receive the medical attention she desperately needs. Harrison’s mother was able to get Holli accepted at Stanford as a charity case since she has no insurance. Holli’s family have taken out a home equity loan on their already paid-off home to do everything they can to get her to Stanford. $200,000 needed for air ambulance and medical expenses. Her condition is now stable and she is breathing on her own, but still connected to a ventilator. She has been given clearance to fly as soon as it can be arranged.
Holli’s family is a deeply religious one. You all know I, too, believe in the power of prayer. Let’s please pray.
Total donations so far are approximately $65,000. Let’s bring Holli to Stanford.
Donation links at both these blogs, including a Tennessee address for Holli’s mom if you prefer to mail a donation.
http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/
http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/
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