Man Details Freak Accident in Tulum That Left Partner Paralyzed

Mexico is so close to the US and you think it's close it's safe it's fun one little incident happens and your whole life is upside down and you can't get help Justin Rayford and his boyfriend of almost 3 years Jared Hill are dealing with the aftermath of a nightmare scenario they endured while on vacation in Mexico a few weeks ago it was my birthday we you know decided to go to Tulum so I mean it's absolutely beautiful there upon arriving the Texas couple decided to go to the beach he was like let's go jump around in the ocean and like play around the ocean and we were just jumping around in waves and you know it was having fun I was tired and was like I want to go lay back in the Cabana and I actually started to walk away I I Heard a Voice like inside of me say like you need to like watch himim and I turned around and saw a bigger wave come and get him and and it crashed him into the bottom of the ocean and then I saw him not come up and I was like oh my gosh what's going on Jared was instantly injured and he was under the water because he was fully paralyzed and I had to pull him up and he was just screaming I can't move my body I can't move my body and I had to pick him up and carry him back to the beach while I was screaming for help a manager of the beach club came over and I was like we need an ambulance I think he broke his neck and some American doctor ran over and was like I'm a doctor can I help the manager actually told him to go away manager says we called an ambulance and I was like okay great so then it was just like focusing on Jared because he is screaming bloody murder time just kept ticking and Ticking and Ticking and I was like what is going on then I noticed staff members started coming around and the manager had the staff members stand in front of J blocking him from the view of the other people at the beach club and I was like this is kind of weird probably 45 minutes had passed and I was like something something is like not right so I asked one of the people blocking Jared I said can you please call an ambulance and he pulled his phone out and the manager told him like No And so he put his phone away so I was like something is up Justin went to the Cabana to grab his phone so I what stapped our coner and I said hey there's been a terrible accident Jared's in a lot of trouble I need an ambulance and I don't think this place is calling them so he was like let me see if I can help he calls the GM finds out they had not called help and I was like I knew it I knew it and then he deleted the WhatsApp message that he had told me this and I was like okay something is going on I do not feel comfortable at all Justin called Red Cross I just told Jared help is coming help is coming it was over 3 hours in a hospital is 4 and 1 half miles away with you know the person I love most in the world screaming in pain scared for their life and I get out of the ambulance and I'm like okay like what are we doing and there's all these people standing outside and nobody's taking Jared out of the ambulance some doctor came out and said we won't take him out of the ambulance unless you pay us $5,000 Justin felt he had no choice to pay the money to get the CT scan his his neck is just like shattered he broke his C1 his c567 and his spinal cord was bent like an S and there was pieces of his vertebrae sticking into his spinal cord and they were just like this is really bad like we can't help you the pair went to another hospital the ipest ambulance ride with a broken neck for it took over an hour and a half to get there they do an MRI on him that took 2 hours and you know I'm just pacing back and forth a neurosurgeon told him Jared needed surgery Justin says doctors still did nothing for over 24 hours I am running around this three-story hospital to the admissions Department to the billing department to finding Nur nurses to get in more pain medication and getting different stories from like every single Department of what is going on and what's happening they had pushed off the surgery over and over again and made up all these excuses like what can I do I said you have everything you're supposed to have and the neurosurgeon said he could die if we don't do the surgery and he literally looked at me and he's like I'm so sorry there's nothing I can do and I said what do you mean and he picked up his phone and showed me a message from the hospital director saying I'm going to keep canceling the surgery get money out of them they literally just wanted cash to grease the wheel to have the surgery and this is at a hospital where people are supposed to care about people's well-being in life they wanted $20,000 so of course they paid they still couldn't get surgery I I don't know what to do this hospital was giving me the runaround they wanted a ransom payment I gave them the ransom payment they said the surgery was happening they canceled it he pleaded with the neurosurgeon who finally did the procedure the surgeon just said like I did the best that I can you know and I you know I think I did good but it's it's not perfect and that he was hemorrhaging really bad at the top of his neck where your head is and so they didn't get to fix two of his vertebrae they just had to close them up they had to do a 360 surgery on him so they actually had to cut him in the front of his throat first his vocal cords over and pull out the broken fragments from his neck to safely roll him over and then cut him down the back the condition of the hospital bothered Justin they don't wear gloves they don't wash their hands they don't wear protective PPE I literally had to beg the people in there to not touch him with bare hands in the ICU and and trying to explain through to them that he has a spinal cord injury and an incision next to his brain like we cannot have bare hands and and I was like what IC sort of ICU is this this is not a safe Zone at [Music] all after several days Jared was flown to Houston Texas they were ready for us there were three nurses in there to do a full body assessment clean them up take all his vitals start him on fluids there was a neurosurgeon in the room within 10 minutes to check him out they ran test on him till 3:30 in the morning so chaotic and exhausting but it's what saved his life and it was so wonderful to be back here and feel like you were in good hands they see he has a spinal cord leak he is still has two broken bones in his neck that weren't fixed and they're like he has to go into surgery right away this is life this is lifethreatening Jared's condition worsened the next thing I know the surgery for that day was cancelled and we couldn't find out why so the doc one of the doctors pulls me outside of the room and says he he has PE he has pulmonary embolisms and they said it's blood clots in his lungs and it was because in the Mexican hospital they just kept him drugged so he never moved at all and nobody moved him then more bad news the head of infectious diseases came in and let us know that he also had menitis from not being in sanitary or disinfected areas and again they said this is super critical because you have a spinal fluid leak it's next to your braid this could kill you so he was on like six different IVs literally six at all times that he had to be on a blood center for the blood clots four different antibiotics and um again he like still couldn't really move they couldn't fix his spinal because they can't they couldn't risk cutting it open because of menitis for days doctors work to stabilize him for surgery when they cut them open they discovered that not only were the titanium pieces that they put in Mexico the wrong sizes they were the in the wrong places so they had to remove everything out put in all new hardware and then fuse his C1 and C2 put a plate in the back of his head they also discovered a cut in his Dura of his spinal cord like a surgical cut that was they they assume a mistake made by one of the two surgeons in there and that's why so much fluid was leaking out after a nightmarish few weeks Jared is finally healing Jared is such an amazing man I love him so much he's the most positive sweet kind person I've ever mat he stayed so positive and in control and calm which I don't know how he did not being able to move and being told you were going to die three different times he's taking time off from his job in cells and he's getting stronger every day working out Jared is on physical therapy and occupational therapy he did start to be able to wiggle his shoulders and move his arm slightly which was amazing [Music] he was walking with the physical therapist today no it wasn't cute wasn't cute at all but he was he was walking and the doctors here are very hopeful they have a GoFundMe for medical expenses outpouring of support and love to him has been overwhelmingly wonderful like it it is so touching but I just need to you know I feel like I need to advocate for him to make sure that he can still get that love and support Jared shares the story to warn other Travelers I try to be a very proactive traveler like had International Insurance I know where the hospital is I've been to toing before people just need to know about this like if you are a person that researches things and plans things and you felt like you had things relatively under control and your whole world got turned upside down how would it be for someone else I need to tell people I don't know what it's going to do but at least if it makes one person think uh or plan a little better you know I think that makes a difference for Inside Edition digital I'm Andreas swnd

Channel: Inside Edition

Views: 594,714

Keywords: mexico, travel, medicine, new York city, Texas, LGBTQ, Inside edition, inside_edition, ie newsdesk, accident, freak accident, travel insurance, tulum, resort, beach, paralyzed, ransom, houston, texas, lgbtq, just raiford, jared hill, vacation, malpractice, spinal injury, doctors

Id: 0d2ZX1J-HEM

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2024