Sad, sad deal. Jillian Phillips (now Jillian Hunt) was a very good volleyball player just a couple of years ago at Texas A&M. A little more than a month ago, Jillian suffered a life-threatening neck and spine injury and because she was working overseas as a missionary, she has no insurance. Medical bills are up over $100,000. We found out about this and reached out to Jillian to get the full story straight from her in an effort to distribute an accurate, consistent message to the Aggie community.

Please read an e-mail that she send to TexAgs president Brandon Jones. It explains the entire situation and how you might be able to help her if you feel so inclined:

quote:
I graduated from Marble Falls High School in 2005 and moved to College Station to begin training as a middle blocker for the Aggies. I loved every minute of Aggieland! From going to class, strength and conditioning sessions, volleyball practice, playing in front of thousands of the best Aggie fans every week, study halls, and making lifelong friends, I fell in love with Aggieland! I graduated in May of 2009 with a Bachelors degree in University Studies Business w/ double minor in Communications and Sports Management. I married my high school sweetheart, Bryan Hunt, on June 27, 2009 and we both started jobs that summer. Bryan was a social studies teacher at Harmony Science Academy in Bryan and I started work in the Sales and Catering department at the Hilton in College Station. I loved the customer service aspect of the event planning business and enjoyed planning weddings and parties. After two years of working, my husband and I decided we wanted to travel and live overseas for a year. After lots of ideas, brainstorming, and research, we decided that we would spend six months volunteering in Africa and five months living and working in Australia.

We both left our jobs (after pinching pennies for two years!) and moved to Uganda, Africa in June of 2011. While in Uganda, Bryan and I served with a missionary organization called Empower-A-Child (http://www.empower-a-child.org) that works diligently in the city and the surrounding villages to promote health, education, empowerment, and the love of Christ to the precious Ugandan people. Our organization also has an extensive child sponsorship program that allows beautiful children to be paired with sponsor families. We worked closely with these sponsor children, as well as building a church, digging wells, and increasing the well-being and education of the village children. Bryan and I LOVED our time in Uganda and were changed by the beautiful people there. Although we lived there for six months, we almost didn't want to start the next part of our trip! We cannot wait to go back and visit our friends!

We left Uganda right before Christmas and arrived in Sydney, Australia on December 23. We traveled and worked all over Australia and were able to see lots of that beautiful country. We spent a lot of time on the beaches of the East coast, climbing the mountains of New Zealand, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, hiking the National Parks of Tasmania, exploring the Outback, and making many friends along the way. We worked two casual, temporary jobs to make money while we were there and had an incredible time! Throughout our trip, we learned so much about each other and about the cultures we were able to immerse ourselves in. We kept a blog of our travels for our friends and families at http://www.adventurehunting.wordpress.com. We both agree that it was the trip of a lifetime and have already talked about planning our next adventure

We returned to the United States on May 8th and had a memorable reunion with our sweet friends and families! The plan WAS to spend the rest of May traveling around to all our friends and families and then move back to College Station for the summer where I would coach Aggie Volleyball camps. That plan crumbled while in Pearland at my family reunion when I had an accident on the large, inflatable water slide. After going down the slide (you FLEW down that thing!) and landing on my back in the catch pool at the bottom, one of my family members accidently slipped at the top of the slide. He wasn't able to stop himself before he crashed into the back of my neck at full force where I felt immediate pain, but no crack or crunch of bone. After a couple of minutes of getting my bearings and passing some tests given to me by my EMT trained dad, the decision was made to put a neck collar on me and go to the urgent care just to make sure everything was ok. After a long wait, a CAT scan, and more long waits, the doctor shocked us by informing us that I had "broken my spine." He went on to explain that I had fractured the C7 vertebrae and crushed my T1 vertebra in my neck, while obliterating my surrounding ligaments. He told us I needed to be transported by ambulance to the ICU at a larger medical center in Kingwood where a neurosurgeon would re-evaluate me and take an MRI. After a bumpy ambulance ride, a long sleepless night, an MRI in the early morning, and a couple doctor's visits later, we were looking at surgery. The doctor was confident that after a surgical procedure fusing my C7 vertebrae to my T1 with a chunk of bone from my hip and a metal plate, I would make a full recovery after 8 weeks in a neck collar. He also said that if I hadn't been so young, active, and with such muscular strength in my neck (thank you Texas A&M volleyball!!!!), I could have been paralyzed. While surgery was not welcome news, we were so thankful I had no paralysis and would make a full (although slow...) recovery.

After surgery, 3 more days in the ICU, and 2 more in regular recovery, I was discharged with instructions for wearing a neck collar (my new favorite accessory!) and for follow-up appointments every two weeks. My neurosurgeon will re-evaluate me at the 6-week mark, and hopefully declare that I don't need any additional surgery after new x-rays are taken. I have been home at my parent's house in Marble Fall, TX to recover and am getting better everyday! The toughest part is not being able to play summer volleyball or be as active as I usually am, but am blessed to be surrounded by such loving family and friends. Since we had only been in the country for 2 weeks before the accident, we hadn't signed up for medical insurance and the bills are piling in! The estimates of total bills are around $100,000 (Yikes!), but should be significantly lower with adjustments for no insurance. Even with the adjustments, we have been overwhelmed with the sheer cost of all of the procedures and have been blessed to have donations from loving friends and family! My sweet brother started a Facebook page that is the hub of information and updates on fundraising efforts such as concerts and t-shirt sales (http://www.facebook.com/proverbstwentytwonine) and a Paypal account (http://bit.ly/JillianHuntMedicalExpenses) where people can make direct donations. In addition to these efforts, a benefit concert is planned for August 4th at Bryan Icehouse on Lake Bryan. It will be an all-day event with a sand volleyball tournament, a washer tournament, tons of bands, drinks, and food with profits going towards my bills.

We have been blessed with the generosity of many people and overwhelmed by the Aggie network. Thank-you so much for sharing our story and we hope one day we can pay all these blessings forward!

Thanks and Gig 'Em!
Jillian (Phillips) Hunt '09

Thanks for the time! Go to the links above and help her out if you feel led to do so.
Reply Quote