Louisville high school teacher fighting for his life, his family - WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — What would you do if you learned you didn’t have long to live? That’s a reality for Rob Hammond.

He teaches World History at Waggener High School, fighting a cancer diagnosis that doctors said itâs a losing battle. Hammond is preparing his family and students for the inevitable.

“We knew that it was aggressive, but it’s become especially aggressive,” he said. “I have about eight tumors on my liver and 20 on my lungs.”

In 2020, Hammond was diagnosed with stage four cancer.

“Still trying to fight this thing,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s a fight that I’m losing.”

Before he was diagnosed with cancer, Hammond was an avid runner, coached soccer and enjoyed good health. But the last two years have been a challenge.

Despite treating the cancer with aggressive chemotherapy, Hammond got more devastating news last week.

“It’s never a good conversation when your doctor starts out with the words ‘I’m sorry,'” Hammond said. “He was like, ‘You know, we’re not going to cure you. We’re not going to fix you.'”

Rob Hammond and his family

In fact, Hammond doesn’t even know if he’ll finish the school year or start the next.

âThey tell me theyâre looking at about a year or whatever, he said. “Could be more, could be less.”Â

Hammond said he feels sick and has to use a cane to stand, but he’s still in the classroom because he needs the benefits, has mounting medical bills and needs to think about his wife and young daughter.

“If I don’t have insurance, I can’t pay for those things and I’m certainly not going to go into this knowing that I’m dying and leave my family in a position where they have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills that they’re on the hook for. It’s just not fair,” he said. “It’s a sad state of affairs when I have to come to work and hope that, you know, maybe I don’t die in front of the students or anything but hope that I die while I’m still employed so that some of my benefits â like life insurance benefits that I have through work â kick in so that my wife can do things like pay off the house, pay off the car and pay for a funeral and still have some money left over.”

Waggener Principal Sarah Hitchings and her staff know it is an uphill battle, but they’re still trying to make the best of every day.

Rob Hammond

“It’s really tough. We are all just his biggest cheerleaders,” Hitchings said. “We don’t want to think about that. We just want to support him each and every day that he can come in here.

“He’s such an inspiration to all of us walking in this building each and every day. So we put on that brave face for him as well and just cherish any interaction we have with him. And any day he’s here and teaching in the classroom is just such a gift.”

A co-worker started a GoFundMe page to help with medical bills and to help Hammondâs wife and child. If you’d like to contribute, click here.

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