The 42-year-old reality star revealed his hospitalization in a January 26 Instagram post, sharing how he had a motorcycle accident in Tulum, Mexico, in which he suffered 11 fractured ribs, a punctured lung, a concussion, and internal bleeding. Corey’s crash also caused him to miss his dad, Rick Harrison‘s, wedding to Angie Polushkin.
After spending 32 days in the hospital undergoing multiple surgeries, he is now asking fans to help cover his medical bills. Corey’s close friend, Aron Chambers, started a GoFundMe page, with a current goal set at $18,000.
“The financial pressure became too much, and Corey had no choice but to check himself out [of the hospital] against medical advice,” Chambers wrote on the page. He then returned to his home in Tulum, but, within hours, he was “in excruciating pain.”
“A house doctor came in to administer IV fluids and morphine treatments. Corey was incredibly hesitant to take heavy pain meds, especially after losing his brother Adam to an overdose just last year, but the agony left him with no other option,” Chambers continued.
Chambers added, “In a heartbreaking moment that shook all of us to our core, Corey looked at us and said, ‘I’m just going to die out here. I don’t have the money to keep paying these people.'”
His friends then drove him four and a half hours inland to a more affordable facility in Mérida. “Every bump on that road felt like a brutal kick to his already shattered chest — there were moments when we weren’t sure we’d make it in time,” Chambers noted.
Once at the hospital, Corey found out one of his ribs had “completely separated and was pressing into his lung.” This required him to have almost three liters of blood drained from his chest cavity. He also underwent “three life-saving surgeries and spent an additional 18 days in the hospital, battling through recovery.”
Before being discharged, Corey learned that his medical expenses now exceeded $100,000.
“Corey emptied his entire bank account to cover what he could. Friends, including myself, maxed out credit cards just to keep his treatment going,” Chambers explained. “Being on television and part of Pawn Stars fame doesn’t come with a built-in safety net for emergencies like this — medical crises don’t care about celebrity status.”
As of writing, the GoFundMe has raised just under $5,000.
Last year, Corey announced he had not renewed his contract with Pawn Stars, though he told TMZ he still receives some residual checks from the show.
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