THE DIRECTOR of the White House Security Office had his lower leg amputated after he contracted the coronavirus during a White House superspreader event announcing Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination.
Crede Bailey is recovering from Covid-19 after fighting the virus for three months in the hospital, which resulted in the amputation of the big toe on his left side and the loss of his lower leg and foot on his right side.
Bailey, the White House Security Office director, was the most severely ill of people who contracted the virus from the White House.
His family asked the Trump administration not to publicize his condition, and the president has never admitted Bailey’s illness. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Instead, Bailey’s friends have turned to the public for help to pay with his hospital expenses. So far, a GoFundMe created by a friend Bailey’s has raised close to $40,000 of its $50,000 goal.
“This is a campaign to help Crede Bailey and his family with medical and healing expenses necessary as a result of Crede’s COVID-19 illness and the life-altering results,” wrote Dawn McCrobie, a friend of Bailey’s.
“First let me say that Crede will NOT be happy I’ve done this as he is a proud man who is the first to help everyone else but would never ask for help himself,” McCrobie continued.
“But the reality is this. His family has staggering medical bills from a hospital stay of 2+ months and still counting in the ICU and a long road ahead in rehab before he can go home,” she wrote in November, updating to three months in December. “When he does make it home there will be major changes necessary to deal with his new, and permanent, disability.”
“We need your financial help,” McCrobie continued, saying “We don’t want Crede or his family to carry the financial burden, we need them to focus on his health and recovery.”
When McCrobie updated a month later, she wrote that “Crede beat COVID-19 but it came at a significant cost: his big toe on his left foot as well as his right foot and lower leg had to be amputated.”
Bailey will be fitted for a prosethetic leg in the upcoming months, McCrobie wrote, while he is now resting at a rehabilitationn cennter.
Friends of Bailey have confirmed McCrobie is a friend of his, yet both the sources and McCrobie have declined to comment, explaining Bailey’s family want to keep his condition quiet. The White House also declined to comment, and did not specify if the president contributed to the GoFundMe.
Sources told Bloomberg that Bailey was known as a strong Trump supporter. His office deals with credentialing matters for accessing the White House complex, and works closely with the U.S. Secret Service.
The president has spent the greater part of the pandemic minimizing the virus’ effect and risks, even after he was hospitalized with the coronavirus on October 2.
Meanwhile, medical experts are still researching how the virus damages the body, but have concluded loss of blood flow is a major consequence.
McCrobie has since updated the GoFundMe to say Bailey “is blown away by your generosity,” but will need to renovate his house with ramps, handrails and other rennovations “to accomodate his disability.”
She added the same would be for his car, which would need a left gas pedal level, as well as other renovations. “I could go on and on but you get the picture – there are a lot of adjustments ahead!” she wrote.
