Help Cameron Recover After Second Severe Brain Injury

Story

Hello friends, family, and anyone willing to help.
Our beloved father and husband Cameron is currently in the ICU again with a severe brain injury.

Cameron suffers from a chronic disease called muscular dystrophy. This horrible disease forces his immune system to attack his muscles as they think they do not belong in his body. Cameron has suffered from this for the last 20 years ever since he was on his LDS mission in the Dominican Republic and Miami, Florida. It has progressively gotten worse over the years, affecting his ability to walk, get in and out of chairs and vehicles, use his hands, and his ability to live his life to its fullest extent overall. Cameron receives monthly plasma infusions to help try to slow down the effects of his disease.

Despite all the challenges he has faced in his life, Cameron is one of the most hardworking and admirable people you will ever meet. Cameron is a loving father to 6 beautiful kids, ages ranging from 18 to 8 years old. He works two jobs to support his family, on top of helping around the house. Cameron is one of the funniest, most relatable, yet most hard working people on this earth and the love we have for him is incomprehensible.

Unfortunately, one of the most devastating aspects of Cameron’s disease is the fact that he is very susceptible to falling over, and when he does, he lacks the strength to protect himself. He suffered his first really serious fall on March 9th this year. He fell backwards in our kitchen and hit the back of his head on the concrete floor. He was knocked unconscious immediately and was rushed to the Utah Valley Hospital where he stayed for almost a full month. It was devastating to see him suffer, but luckily he was able to make a full recovery and return to his normal life back at home. We are so grateful for all the love and support we received during that time.

On May 24th, Cameron had another extremely severe fall. It was the day of our youngest daughter Gracie’s baptism, and a day before our second oldest son Gavin’s birthday. The baptism went great, but at the luncheon afterwards, about thirty seconds after we said the prayer, Cameron fell straight backwards onto the concrete floor and hit his head extremely hard. He was knocked unconscious immediately and was bleeding out on the ground. He was eventually rushed to Utah Valley Hospital again, this time by helicopter. This was horribly traumatic for all of our extended family and kids to see.

Since his new fall, Cameron has had multiple surgeries in order to try to offset the severe swelling and bleeding in his brain. The night of the fall, he went into an emergency craniotomy because the swelling was getting too large. During this craniotomy, the brain surgeon would find a huge hematoma on the other side of the brain. So he had to operate on both sides. If the surgeon had not caught this, Cameron would have had an hour to live. Cameron also had part of his frontal lobe removed to help with the swelling. Since these surgeries, he has been stable, but the swelling has not necessarily improved. He also had a tracheotomy so that the ventilator won’t destroy his esophagus. Cameron is in a coma, but is still moving his arms and legs in response to pain and other things. He has not woken up yet, but we as his family are going to give him every chance he can get to recover and come back. Cameron is a fighter. He has been his whole life. We’re gonna give him a chance.

As we are going through this very rocky road, we are going to have ups and downs, but we are not going to give up. We will greatly appreciate any donations you would like to give to Cameron and our family.

Help us to see our dad again.

Organizers :

Co-organized
Emily Gunderson and Brennan Gunderson are organizing this fundraiser.