Corey Harrison, best known to television audiences as “Big Hoss” from Pawn Stars, is seeking financial help from fans after a motorcycle crash in Mexico and a series of complications left him facing medical bills of more than $100,000, according to a fundraiser organised on his behalf and statements he has given since the accident. The 42-year-old, who has long been associated with the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas through the History Channel series, was injured in Tulum in late January, just days before his father Rick Harrison’s family wedding in Mexico.
According to the fundraising appeal created by his friend Aron Chambers, Harrison suffered 11 breaks in his rib cage, a concussion and internal bleeding in the crash. Harrison had earlier confirmed the severity of his injuries himself in an Instagram post referenced by People, writing, “Pretty messed up but I’m good,” and adding, “3 nights in the hospital, 11 breaks in my rib cage.” He also wrote that “crash bars are awesome,” a reference to the motorcycle equipment he appeared to credit with preventing even worse injuries.
What followed, according to Chambers’ account, was not a straightforward recovery. Harrison was first taken to hospital in Playa del Carmen, where he remained for 14 days before, the fundraiser says, the cost of treatment became too much. Chambers said Harrison then left against medical advice and returned home to Tulum, where his pain worsened to the point that a doctor was called out to administer intravenous fluids and morphine. Chambers wrote that Harrison had been reluctant to rely on strong pain medication after the death of his brother Adam last year, but that the pain left him with little choice. The Associated Press reported in January 2024 that Adam Harrison, one of Rick Harrison’s three sons, died in Las Vegas at the age of 39 after a suspected drug overdose.
The situation then became more serious. Chambers wrote that Harrison’s oxygen levels dropped dangerously low and that he told those around him, “I’m just going to die out here. I don’t have the money to keep paying these people.” According to the fundraiser, friends then drove him more than four hours to a cheaper medical facility in Mérida. Once there, doctors found that one of his ribs had separated completely and was pressing into his lung. Chambers said Harrison had nearly three litres of blood drained from his chest cavity and underwent three life-saving surgeries before spending another 18 days in hospital.
By the time he was discharged, Chambers said, Harrison had exhausted his finances. The fundraiser states that he had emptied his bank account and maxed out his credit cards. In comments reported by TMZ, Harrison said the total he had spent was about $120,000, that he had around $400 left in his bank account and that he also owed money to his father and to friends who had helped him cover costs. He told the outlet he was reluctant to ask the public for help, saying, “What am I going to do, fly out to Vegas and sell stuff? I can’t move from my recliner.” The fundraiser says any money raised will go towards outstanding medical bills, rent, medication, therapy and the eventual cost of returning home for further recovery.
The appeal has also highlighted the gap between celebrity and financial security. Chambers wrote that being known from television did not mean Harrison had a safety net for an emergency of this scale, adding that “medical crises don’t care about celebrity status.” Harrison told TMZ that while he still receives some residual payments from reruns of Pawn Stars, he is no longer affiliated with the programme. That is broadly consistent with remarks he gave last year to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, when he said he had moved to Tulum, was not in renewal talks with History and did not see himself returning for another season. “At this stage of the game, we’re all playing a character on Pawn Stars,” he said then. “I can’t play another season of 41-year-old me pretending to be 23.”
Harrison’s distance from the series marks a notable shift for a figure who has been part of the Pawn Stars story from the beginning. History’s cast profile says he began working at the pawnshop at the age of nine, eventually becoming one of the central personalities in a franchise built around the family business on Las Vegas Boulevard. The Associated Press reported after Adam Harrison’s death that the programme began in 2009 and centred on the family relationships and business operations of the shop, with Corey Harrison featuring as Rick Harrison’s oldest son. The Review-Journal reported in February 2025 that the show was on hiatus, no longer under contract with History at that point, and uncertain of its future in its existing form.
The motorcycle crash also carried a personal cost beyond the financial one. Harrison missed his father’s wedding celebrations because he was in hospital. Rick Harrison told Fox News that “it sucks that he didn’t” attend, adding, “I wanted him to be there. He was one of my groomsmen.” He said he had driven to see his son in hospital shortly before the ceremony. People reported that Corey had apologised publicly to his father in his social media update, writing, “sorry Pops looks like I’m missing your wedding.”
For fans of the long-running series, the current appeal offers a stark contrast to the image many associate with Harrison from television: a confident negotiator working the counter at one of America’s most recognisable pawn shops. Chambers wrote that asking for help was difficult for someone as independent as Harrison, but described the fundraiser as “our lifeline to get him through this.” He added that Harrison remains “the same resilient guy he’s always been,” even as he navigates what he called one of the hardest periods of his life.
The story has also prompted strong reaction online, not least because Harrison’s years on television created an assumption among some viewers that he would be financially insulated from this kind of emergency. But the publicly available details point instead to a prolonged medical ordeal, treatment in multiple facilities, emergency surgery, lost mobility and continuing recovery away from the United States. As of the latest reports, Harrison is out of hospital and recovering at home in Mexico, but still faces heavy costs and is not yet strong enough to travel back for further treatment. For a man whose public persona was built on evaluating the value of other people’s possessions, the crisis has become an unusually personal reckoning with what recovery can cost when the cameras are gone.
