CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Jerred King started a GoFundMe for two-year-old Preston Simpson, who is in the Intensive Care Unit at Driscoll Children’s Hospital following an ATV accident.
King works with Preston’s father Tyson at SR Trident in Gregory. King started the GoFundMe to help the Simpson family pay for medical expenses while Preston is in the hospital.
“Having a child near his kid’s age, I could kind of relate as a father. I couldn’t imagine dealing with the stress of what your child is going through and compiling financial worries, medical bills, and all that. Just caring about him as an individual, caring about his family and what they’re going through, I just did what I could do to help,” King said.
As of Friday night, the GoFundMe has raised nearly $7,000 of its $20,000 goal. King said there was no reason he chose $20,000, but knew the medical bills could be expensive.
“With insurance or not, a couple of weeks in the ICU, that’s going consume a lot of money. So, I felt like the best thing I could do was to help ease their financial burden, so they could focus on their child and his recovery,” King said.
King said he was surprised to see how much money had been raised so quickly, and that people as far away as Ohio had contributed.
“He’s built a name for himself, just on his good character. His good character is why it’s been shared. For all of us, it’s really easy, we just share the post. He did the hard work, he’s the good person, he’s the reason people are taking that extra step to help,” he said.
SR Trident is continuing to pay Tyson Simpson even while he is out of work tending to Preston.
