‘Big Brother’ Winner Starts GoFundMe for Son With Huge Medical Bills

Big Brother Season 4 winner Jun Song is reaching out for help after her 11-year-old son fell seriously ill, requiring a nearly two-week-long hospital stay as he battled mycoplasma pneumonia that evolved into bacterial meningitis. The former reality TV star posted on GoFundMe Thursday, asking for help to pay her son’s medical bills after what she called “the worst nightmare of [her] life.”

Sharing a photo of her young son in the hospital, Song shared the emotional story of her son’s health scare, which began with him falling ill with what she thought was the flu but ended up being a deadly viral infection. Noah fell “incredibly ill” in late October with what “turned out to be mycoplasma pneumonia that evolved into bacterial meningitis when the mycoplasma traveled to his brain.”

“This is stuff you hear about happening to someone else, or seeing on some television program in the comfort of your own living room. It’s not something I ever expected, and seeing my Noah lose consciousness and lay there in the children’s ICU was some of the slowest hours of my life I ever lived through,” Song continued. “Not knowing when he’d wake up, or if he’d wake up at all, and not knowing if he’d wake up with brain damage. I told myself in my head, to prepare for it all. But in my heart, there was only dull dreadful pain.”

It took 11 days for Noah to get to a place where he could “function somewhat normally,” going to the bathroom himself, eating solid food and even being able to “crack a joke.” Unfortunately, Song’s medical bills are sizable, as she must pay the costs of a 20% co-pay for what wasn’t covered by insurance from those 11 days in the hospital in addition to paying for her son’s medical needs in the journey to a full recovery that’s to come. 

“I knew this single mom life wouldn’t be easy, but I certainly didn’t see this avalanche of hardship coming our way. I don’t think anyone ever does,” Song wrote. “So, I can only ask humbly for any and all help from anyone I’ve touched in some way through the years, to help me. I’m not good at asking for help. It’s usually me on the other side, helping everyone else. But here I am. Hoping to be on the receiving end.” Song won Big Brother Season 4 back in 2003, winning the $500,000 grand prize in a near-unanimous vote at the end of her season. Since then, she and her son moved to Belgium, where she opened up a Korean restaurant.