Fundraiser raises over $27,000 for critically injured man
Posted September 25, 2026 11:03 am.
A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $27,000 for a Winnipeg family to support their 30-year-old brother who’s in critical condition.
Amel Hamzic is on life support in the ICU at St. Boniface Hospital, battling a serious infection that has severely damaged his lungs.
Hamzic’s sister Elmednia says he was taken to hospital by ambulance on August 10 after suffering a seizure, sustaining fractures to his pelvis and parts of his spine.
He was later moved to the family medicine floor to recover. But on September 8, he quickly deteriorated.
“He shouldn’t be up there,” said Elmedina. “He was becoming dazed and confused; he was complaining about pain in other parts of his body other than what originally happened, which was his spine. We were noticing that he was very yellow.”
She adds that it was discovered that Amel’s white blood cell count was extremely high and his hemoglobin was very low. A few days later, the family received a call that changed everything.
“We were on the way to the hospital because they told us it was just pneumonia and concern for his kidney and it was not even an hour after they called us to tell us that that they called because he was being transferred to the ICU so I was very shocked because I didn’t know what was going on,” Elmedina explained.
Amel was diagnosed with a life-threatening infection affecting his bloodstream, lungs, spinal fluid, and brain… now he’s on life support.
He is in desperate need of a lung transplant, and because he has no health insurance, due to being off work from his injuries, the family started a GoFundMe to support his treatment, travel, and recovery.
They are grateful for the Winnipeg community and beyond.
“Thank you so much; we never thought that that would ever happen, and the support that has come from everybody, not just from the GoFundMe, coming to visit, reaching out, it came as such a shock.”
In the meantime, Amel remains in the ICU until his infection gets under control and he is able to be transported to Toronto for a lung transplant.
