Community Corner
Medical Bills Stack Up For Paulding Bus Driver Saved By Students, How To Help
A Paulding bus driver had a mini stroke on the job. Now she's exhausted her sick days and has little to no income while bills stack up.
PAULDING COUNTY, GA — Last month, bus driver Julie Sargent-Williamson suffered from what doctors believe to be a mini stroke while driving a group of Paulding County Schools students to school one day. Now she faces multiple medical procedures — and the bills to go with them.
The morning of Oct. 1, Williamson was driving her usual group of students to school, as she has done for the last two years. But when she felt a hot sensation all over her body, lost her ability to speak and felt extremely dizzy, two East Paulding Middle School students — Kane Daugherty and Conner Doss — stepped up in a big way to help her.
Daugherty ran up front, took the walkie talkie and radioed to the transportation dispatcher, while Doss corralled the other students to the back, kept them calm and started a prayer circle for Williamson.
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If it weren't for those students, Williamson said she may not even be alive to tell the story.
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Related: 'They Are My Heroes': Paulding Students Save Bus Driver's Life
She's been wearing a heart monitor around the clock since the medical emergency happened a month ago, and has been out of work since then, too. She's exhausted all of her sick days and has little to no income coming in, outside of her husband's job.
She's also already had at least one electrical procedure done on her heart and has more medical procedures coming up in the near future, she told Patch — and the medical bills are piling up. She needs help, so she created a GoFundMe campaign.
"I have several procedures coming up that I have no idea how we are gonna pay for," she wrote on the GoFundMe page. "I'm not asking for a lot, but anything will help. It is taking a lot for me to write this because I don't ask for help, but I really need it."
She set a $5,000 donation goal, and $165 have been donated as of publication Monday afternoon. If people are not able to donate financially, Williamson said she just asks for prayers and well wishes.
To donate, visit the GoFundMe campaign link.
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