Southeast Nebraska community comes together to help volunteer firefighter find answers

UNADILLA, Neb. (KLKN) – The small community of Unadilla showed its support Saturday for a young man in need.

Just over a third of the town’s population showed up for a benefit in his name, raising money for his condition.

Isaiah Reed, a 20-year-old volunteer Firefighter, has suffered many concussions throughout his life, leading to a lot of neck pain and migraines.

In November, Reed received a steroid injection in his neck to help with the pain he was feeling.

But that injection came with a side effect; Reed began experiencing full body tremors. The tremors have left him unable to walk, drive or do day-to-day tasks.

“I’m on double digits for concussions between wrestling, football, car wrecks, just falling down in general,” Reed said. “They found a cavernoma on my brain that they don’t believe is part of it but we’re still not 100% sure.”

Those lack of answers are despite Reed undergoing many tests, including MRI’s, spinal taps, nerve testing and CT scans.

So, his family decided to throw a benefit to raise money to get him into the Mayo Clinic. All proceeds from the benefit will go toward travel expenses, medical bills and anything that will help.

“It means a lot to me and honestly, there were a lot more people here today than I thought there were going to be,” he said. “I really do appreciate everybody that came out and donated or even just showed up to talk.”

Although he has tried to remain positive, he said his short-term disability check is running out quickly.

“I still have no answers. It’s been since the middle of November last year and it’s been rough, I can’t work,” he said. “So hopefully we can figure something out within the next eight weeks, that way I can hopefully return to work. We’ve had a lot of referrals put in for numerous big hospitals so hopefully we can get in somewhere there.”

Reed hopes to get back into a normal daily routine, including going back to his work as a volunteer firefighter.

“I’ve been with the fire department for two years, since I turned 18,” Reed said. “It’s been a really fun experience. I think my best experience was getting up to go to Grand Island to go to fire school. That was really fun. I really enjoy it, I enjoy the people I do it with. Going out to calls is pretty exhilarating.”