A Slippery Rock University student was life-flighted late Saturday night after severely injuring himself after falling off of a railing at The Grove Apartments, landing face-first onto a concrete foundation.
Gage Brain, 19, was transported to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Presbyterian Hospital, where he is currently recovering from serious injuries sustained to the left side of his face.
Multiple friends of Gage, including Anthony Cumo, Jason Shear and Kaden Lane, created a GoFundMe for Gage and his family, which has now accumulated about $8,700 in donations. According to Lane, the initial goal was just $2,000.
“The reason why we all wanted to start it is because we all know how expensive it is for a situation like that,” Lane said. “We can’t even go to urgent care and just expect to pay out of pocket because medical stuff isn’t cheap nowadays.
“We just wanted to show that people actually care.”
Though this accident was nothing short of devastating, Lane made clear that the biggest problem for the family of Gage now isn’t their son’s recovery from the injuries he sustained, but rather it’s the frustration being created by the flooding of misinformation.
“I just don’t want people continuing to spread rumors that aren’t even true,” Lane emphasized. “It’s only making it worse for his family because they are all just trying to put the pieces together, but they are all getting different stories, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s kind of tearing [Gage’s family] apart.
“If [people] just stopped the rumors in the first place then this [confusion] wouldn’t even be happening.”
According to Gage’s brother, Gavin Brain, he is recovering significantly quicker than initially expected.
“Just know that [Gage] is up and he is functional and that is really big you know,” the older Brain said. “It’s a miracle.”
The Brain family is asking for privacy during this time so Gage can focus on continuing his recovery and regaining his memory of the events that took place that night.
The university is asking students who may be impacted by the events over the weekend to reach out to the Student Support team through a Care Referral or contact the SRU Counseling Center at 724.738.2034.
