MALIBU—Local Malibu artist, Stafford Taylor was hospitalized after sustaining multiple head injuries and extensive brain damage when he was assaulted while walking home on July 4.
Taylor went missing at around 10:45 p.m. on July 4, when he was walking home after attending a Fourth of July celebration, The Malibu Times reported. He was found 36 hours later by family members at the UCLA Medical Center under Joe Doe status.
Officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Malibu/Lost Hills Station are investigating the incident and are trying to form a timeline from when Taylor went missing to the time he arrived at the hospital and started to receive treatment.
Terry Taylor, the wife of the victim created a GoFundMe page to raise $125,000 to cover Taylor’s medical expenses. As of Saturday, July 14, a total of $15,280 has been raised.
“Currently, Stafford is in an induced coma to help his brain heal. The current timeline is at least 2 weeks in the NeuroScience Trauma ICU, then 1-2 years of 24-hour rehabilitation,” Terry wrote on the GoFundMe page.
On Facebook, Terry Taylor shared a status on her husband’s recovery stating, “He opened one eye spontaneously today even though so sedated!!”
Stafford is an artist and a self-employed master carpenter, and does not have medical insurance.
“He had been taken off a blood cooling machine to try and control his shivering. The shivering sets off waves of elevated brain swelling. He is still sedated and having his breathing helped by intubation but the sedation is less than yesterday❤️
Stafford has been recently studying the power of collective thought and I am witness to the fruition of that truth. I humbly thank all of you for your love. Love is all there is❤️
In peace,” Terry Taylor wrote on the GoFundMe page on July 13.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at (818) 878-1808.
Written By Nina Garza and Kelsey Thomas
