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Brandon Buckingham, a YouTube travel vlogger from Stephenville, suddenly became sick almost 10 days ago and remains in the ICU with a long recovery ahead.
Courtesy of Brandon Buckingham
A person’s life can change in a moment. For Brandon Buckingham, a Central Texas teacher turned YouTube travel creator with over 1.2 million subscribers, that moment was two weeks ago when his roommate found him in his bedroom suddenly deaf with swollen legs and disorientation.
What started out as a few days of vomiting quickly turned into something much more serious for Buckingham, who lives in Stephenville.
An urgent care center immediately sent him to the emergency room. He was put in the intensive care unit, where he still remains.
Buckingham told the Star-Telegram by phone from his hospital bed Tuesday that he was initially diagnosed with systolic heart, kidney and liver failure brought on by pneumonia that turned into sepsis.
“The ER was very quickly, like, your liver is shutting down, your kidneys are shutting down,” Buckingham said. “You have a bunch of fluid in your lungs, and you’re having systolic heart failure. So, it’s very, very, very fast onset of intensity, but it’s pretty much just how it was. I woke up one morning, and I was, like, dying.”
Buckingham said doctors later told him that while the sepsis pneumonia caused his liver and kidney failure, his heart failure was brought on by coxsackievirus, which commonly causes hand, foot and mouth disease.
His kidney and liver functions have since improved with antibiotic and steroid treatments, but his heart is not making much progress.
Buckingham said he was initially told he may be able to go home for Thanksgiving, but now he will remain in the ICU through the holiday.
“So, we’re just trying to take it day by day,” he said. “My days are pretty hard, to be honest, to get through. I feel like I’m suffocating, and it’s unclear what’s going to be happening. I have faith, I have faith that, just like my kidney, my liver, that my heart will also improve.”
Buckingham has a wife and 11-month-old daughter . He said being a YouTube creator means you have to constantly be making videos to earn money. With a prolonged illness comes a lot of unplanned expenses.
Buckingham started a GoFundMe to help with the “upwards of $200,000” in medical bills. As of Wednesday, $308,000 has been raised, including a $10,000 gift signed “MrBeast,” the name of a famous YouTuber.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but I know for sure if I do survive, it will be a very long recovery, and I will not be able to provide for my family for at least several months if things go well,” Buckingham wrote on his GoFundMe page. “A cardiology specialist informed me that I may be on bed rest anywhere for 2 to 4 months as I recover from this very scary, life-threatening illness.”
Buckingham said the donations will go to his medical expenses, to prevent having to have his house foreclosed on and to help provide for his baby.
“I’m so humbled and grateful for everyone who, not even just who donated, just people who cared enough to send me a prayer or thought,” Buckingham told the Star-Telegram. “I don’t feel deserving of all the love and the support, but I feel very humbled and blessed.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 3:38 PM.
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Fousia Abdullahi
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