Influencer with 12mil followers begs for cash to pay hospital bills
Influencer Caleb Coffee sparks fury by launching begging GoFundMe to pay medical bills despite having 12M followers and appearing in adverts
- TikTok star Caleb Coffee plummeted 80 feet off a Hawaiian cliff last week, while on an illegal hike with friends
- His extensive injuries are being documented by his family – several of whom, including his father, are also successful social media creators
- In a plea that came as a surprise to some followers, the family is asking for donations to help cover the medical expenses of Caleb, who is uninsured
A family of influencers has sparked fury by pleading for $100,000 of donations to help their 18 year-old son who fell off a Hawaii waterfall during an illegal hike.
Caleb Coffee was badly injured last week after falling 60-80 feet off rocks near Koiawe Stream in Waimea. But his fame-hungry father Jason Coffee has added insult to injury with a plea for cash that has so far raised $23,000.
Writing on GoFundMe, Jason – who’s posted Instagram ads for huge corporations including Kellogg’s, Nintendo, Discovery and Jimmy Dean – said: ‘Unfortunately Caleb did not have medical insurance and we can not afford these medical bills that is why we are making this go fund me.
‘We thank you for your prayers, Mahalos.’
Caleb should make a recovery from his injuries, which he incurred while hiking through an area that members of the public are banned from visiting. But the Coffees’ brazen beg for cash has angered many followers, who’ve watched the family regularly post adverts that will likely have earned them tens-of-thousands of dollars apiece.
‘You clearly aren’t a poor family. Why should we be paying for Caleb’s healthcare when you were too irresponsible to insure him?’ wrote Steven Pierce, a London-based food influencer and journalist.
‘A go fund me for a TikTok family?!,’ wrote one user.
‘NO WAY YALL SET UP A GO FUND me,’ wrote another.
‘Prayers for your family. Your parents own multiple houses right? Sell one of the houses to pay his medical bills,’ commented a third.
Caleb Coffee, a TikTok star with over 11 million followers on the social media site, is currently in an ICU after falling off a cliff and right into a bed of lava rocks in Hawaii
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DailyMail.com has been unable to confirm the Coffees’ address in Hawaii, but the family regularly flaunt their luxury lifestyle, with daughter Peyton seen unboxing a brand new iPhone in one showy clip.
Caleb has 11 million followers on TikTok and a million on Instagram, with brands happy to pay influencers who have such a large reach huge sums for promotions.
Jason Coffee, who has proudly monetized his children and turned them into a brand, boasts 765,000 followers on Instagram.
He regularly posts adverts of him grinning from ear-to-ear while selling junk food, dog food, computer games, streaming services and breakfast cereal.
It’s not clear why Caleb, who still lives with his parents, sister, and brother, was not medically insured.
Caleb and his sister Peyton, who has 2.4million Instagram followers and 16million on TikTok, are frequent participants in paid advertisements shared mainly on their father, Jason Coffee’s, page.
The family has been documenting parts of their lives online for years, and the two oldest children especially have accumulated enormous followings of people interested in following their various outdoor adventures.
Caleb, in particular, is known for his dramatic physical stunts and intense focus on physical fitness.
Recently, the family moved back to Hawaii from Texas, where they’d lived for a few years previously.
Though the family’s precise financials are unknown, responses rolled in from users who seemed surprised the family would be in need of assistance.
Jason Coffee has been an online influencer of sorts for nearly two decades. He began including his children in his content when they were very young and he still had a Vine account.
The Coffee family: including Jason (right), Chassy (middle right), Caleb (middle left), and Peyton (left). The Coffees have a third child, who is less well known on social media
A few months ago: Jason and Caleb appeared in sponsored content for Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches
In a solo ad, Jason promotes Rice-A-Roni and Pandora
Caleb and his sister Peyton in an ad for a Pokemon game shared on their father’s account
The family were paid to promote Discovery’s then-new streaming channel – Discovery Plus, with their pedigree puppy even roped into the performance
The trio partnered with Nerf to promote a new model of Nerf Blaster gun, with Jason Coffee seen flashing his trademark grin
Seven emergency units were sent to rescue Caleb, though multiple attempts to reach him were thwarted by bad weather before a helicopter could get to him and transport him to the hospital in critical condition.
In a post to his father’s Instagram page on Thursday, Caleb updated fans on his condition.
‘It’s day two after falling off an 80-foot cliff. All the doctors thought that my spine or neck was broken. I just got out of an MRI and somehow, miraculously, it is not broken, just irritation,’ he said.
‘I personally cannot make up an explanation for that other than thank you, Jesus.’
Later, Jason Coffee posted a more detailed update on his son’s condition.
‘[Caleb] is stable, conscious, talking and in good spirits,’ he wrote on his Instagram story.’
‘He has a small break in his neck (he has full motion in his toes and fingers). He has a broken femur (surgery placed a rod through it), two plates and 10 screws in his right elbow, a fractured left wrist, stitches in forehead and lip.
Jason said that his son ‘just had another MRI’ to take a closer look at his neck.’
They initially said that he had a ‘spinal fracture, broke femur, elbow, wrist and multiple gouges and burns throughout his entire body.’
‘The medics and everyone is telling us he’s lucky to be alive and is one of the strongest out there,’ his sister, Peyton, wrote on Instagram.
‘If you can’t donate he would appreciate your prayers. He is thankful to be alive but in excruciating pain as of now.’
‘We thank you for your prayers, Mahalos,’ she added
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