The encounter between Michael Beatty and Patton Oswalt on Twitter wasn’t the friendliest but not many would have predicted how it ended. Beatty, a 64-year-old from Huntsville, Alabama had just returned home after a two-week stay in a local hospital. He fell into a coma as a result of complications with sepsis and diabetes.
To make it worse, the diehard Republican wasn’t amused by the news coming through the Twitter feed. It felt like there were too many negative posts that he didn’t agree with and one of them was actually from Patton Oswalt. Oswalt had sent a critical tweet for president Trump and as soon as Beatty came across it, it just threw him off the edge. Naturally, he found the need to reply. His reply read, “I just realized why I was so happy when you died in Blade Trinity.” Beatty was referring to the 2004 film in which Oswalt featured. But it didn’t end there. He also called the comedian a “sawed off little man.”
According to Beatty, that was the end of it. Speaking in an interview on Thursday, he said that he didn’t think Oswalt would reply or pay any attention to the tweets. But, in fact, the comedian took things a notch higher. Instead of getting engulfed in the politics, Oswalt sent a noble gesture donating $2,000 to a GoFundMe campaign that had been created by Beatty to cater for his medical bills. Oswalt also urged his 4.5 million followers on Twitter to do the same and soon after, donations started to pour in. By Thursday evening, the account raised about $21,000. Before Oswalt’s intervention, it had accumulated only $600.
It was unbelievable, at least from Beatty’s part. He said that he never expected that his scathing tweet towards the comedian would actually result in this kind of good fortune. The 64-year-old from Alabama said that he has been living off his retirement paycheck and that he became sick since he couldn’t afford to properly treat his diabetes. As a result, he developed sepsis and diabetic ketoacidosis which nearly killed him last year. Beatty then fell into an 8-day coma but after his extended stay in hospital, he’s now recovering.
But the medical bills were becoming a problem and just like that, they were solved. In expressing his gratitude to the gesture, Beatty apologized through a tweet and the two continued a friendly banter after that. Oswalt also noted that he had been receiving a lot of positive messages on Twitter from all people across the political divide and vowed to reply to as many messages as he could. The positive replies also came for Beatty as messages of hope and encouragement poured in for his condition. An encounter that started off as a scathing political spat ended up being a very symbolic moment of compassion and it seems everyone stood up and noticed. The $21,000 raised so far should take care of Beatty’s medical expenses but more donations could still come through.
