[Updated] Former Porn Model Gabriel Shams In Critical Condition In New York

Remember Gabriel Shams? The former, twunky, versatile Randy Blue model who later resurfaced in 2014 as a super ripped daddy in some photos by Joe Oppedisano, has just landed in the hospital on life support after suffering a serious health decline on June 19.

Gabriel, who just celebrated his 33rd birthday on June 1, was working as an escort when he gave this interview to Gay Porn Blog last year, saying he’d gained 22 pounds of muscle (naturally?).

Now, Str8UpGayPorn points us to this GoFundMe campaign, which has quickly raised almost $14,000 to help with Gabriel’s medical care, since he is uninsured.

According to that account, Gabriel was having difficulty breathing last Friday and was subsequently rushed to Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital.

Doctors explained that he did not have a heart attack, but his blood pressure was and still is critically low, has a poorly functioning heart, pneumonia in his lungs, and infected blood which has adversely affected his kidneys. Doctors have started dialysis in an attempt to reverse any kidney damage.

He looks pretty terrible in the photo, and this is an awful thing. Apparently Gabriel’s parents are there by his side.

Gabriel lived in San Francisco and I actually knew him before he left to travel the world, first going to Palestine, then getting a degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and going on to get a masters in philosophy at Cambridge, and apparently getting Fulbright Scholarship.

After escorting for a year, he started dabbling in porn again last year, shooting those photos with Oppedisano and playing a Roman centurion in some Bible-themed porn starring Tommy Defendi that hasn’t been released yet as far as I know.

This is sad, and he is very young. But he obviously has a lot of loving friends and family to have raised that $14,000 so fast, in just a single day. Hopefully he’ll get through this.

Update: As of July 16, his brother updated the GoFundMe (which is now close to $20K) with the following:

I talked to Jonas for the first time over the phone today since everything happened. He sounds great and wanted to thank everyone for everything! He sounds so grateful for all of the love sent his way. He isn’t at 100% yet so phone calls to his room are not allowed, but in just a matter of time, we will all get to see him and hear from him. I told him once he is allowed to have his phone and computer, he will be spending a ton of time reading and responding to thousands of messages. I’ve never met a more loved person and I’m so proud of him. For all those wishing to marry my brother since the Supreme Court ruling, I’ll be setting up the application process which involves a background check, interview process, and personality test in the near future. Tryouts will begin in the fall.

Previously: FORMER RANDY BLUE MODEL GABRIEL SHAMS RESURFACES AS BUFF DADDY
WHEN WAS HE HOTTER/WHO WOULD YOU RATHER: GABRIEL SHAMS FOR RANDY BLUE OR GABRIEL SHAMS FOR TREASURE ISLAND?

31 thoughts on “[Updated] Former Porn Model Gabriel Shams In Critical Condition In New York”

  1. Stumbling upon this thread seven years late.

    Just wanted to take a moment to send plethoras of love, warmth and kindness to all my haters and all my lovers.

    May my story serve as a cautionary tale. Take care of your mental health. Addiction is a symptom of a much larger pain. Recovery is laborious, but it is possible.

    Compassion is key.

    a/k/a G.S.

  2. I hired him one time in Pittsburgh. He told me he used steroids to beef up. He was high and couldn’t concentrate. Even though I left after 20 minutes and was out the money, I couldn’t help but like him. Hope he can kick the drugs.

  3. Thats right its none of our business as to why he is in hospital, but suddenly it should be our business when his family publish a picture of him wired up in a hospital bed begging for money ? pur-lease !

    I wish him a speedy recovery also, but once he does he needs to sort himself out – lay off the meth and get yourself insured !

    This sort of thing has set yet another low precedent – oh I cant be arsed to get insured, but I won’t worry because I can just start a GFM and post a picture of myself in hospital that will get me a few dollars !

  4. I find some of the comments interesting for the following reasons.
    (1) If you are intelligent enough to complete university degrees, you should intelligent to understand risks. Insurance is for sharing risk with a company (or the government). You can “self insure” by not paying someone a premium to share your risk. You then punt on the consequences. In the worst case, there are government programs to help the worst-off in society. This guy took a risk and lost.
    (2) It seems that there are more porn models who are educated than in the past (but there was no Internet to discuss this). We just saw the debut of Alex Mecum, who is also educated (engineer) but apparently gets off on people getting off on him having sex, i.e. he is an exhibitionist. If I recall correctly, so did the hunky Dean Flynn of days gone by at Titanmen. Another example of an ostensibly educated person is Adam Ramzi, who is apparently doing a psychology degree between paid fuck sessions, and it has been reported somewhere that Colby Jansen is doing a management degree. All have their reasons for doing porn. They should be smart enough to figure out the types of risks associated with that in future incoming-generating activities.
    (3) The Internet is pretty well forever, and if you are in the category of (2) above, then you must be aware that there is a risk that you may seek employment with someone who has a negative attitude towards a porn past. Discrimination on the basis of a porn past breaks no law. That is another risk you take. You definitely cannot become a politician and you need to be careful that you don’t want to become a professional who must pass a “good fame and character” test to get a licence to practise in a particular field. However, if you want to be an entrepreneur in the entertainment industry, it could add to your income-generating potential. My point is that doing porn can be limiting, depending on what you want to do, so it is a risk.
    (4) The minute you post a digital panhandle on GoFundMe you have published your identity and situation for the world to see. You have lost any right to privacy about the matter because it is published on a grand scale.

  5. Geez people. A man is in the hospital, seriously ill but thankfully getting better. Can we leave all the negative comments until he’s as least out of the hospital? What ever the reason that may or may not have contributed to him being in the hospital is quite frankly none of your damn business. Worry about your lives, which I am sure, are not perfect. Probably because you’re to busy thrashing other people to get away from the fact you lead boring, petty miserable lives.

    Gabriel, I wish you a speedy recovery.

    1. Why make presumptions about people’s lives when you don’t know them. Many people were more than happy to celebrate Fred Phelps’s death just because they didn’t like him.

  6. If his family have taken this picture to help his gofundme, then the Sword is doing its job in reporting the news about a gay porn performer.

    I also wonder about his education. I find it so hard to believe someone with that kind of academic background goes down the porn career route. I have been pretty vocal i the past that most modern porn performers are thick as shit and couldn’t hold down a normal job if they tried.

    Crystal Meth will always ruin your life.

  7. Publishing a photo of him lying in a hospital bed is in such poor taste and an invasion of his privacy. I hope you’ll reconsider and remove.

    1. I was thinking the same thing. It’s pretty tasteless. But I also wonder who would take a pic like this (for tweeting/Instagram purposes, no doubt) of someone while their health is declining.

  8. I’m sorry to read that this individual is in critical condition. I sincerely wish him a full and speedy recovery. I’ve read about Gabriel Shams in the past and I have to admit I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of his supposed educational background. I just find it very difficult to believe that a person who has studied and obtained degrees from highly respected, academically acclaimed and exclusive institutions such as University of Pittsburgh and University of Cambridge would decide to make an on-and-off again career in the gay porn industry. I read in an interview he gave a few years back that he speaks English, Arabic and Hebrew. He is supposedly a “scholar” in regards to Middle Eastern history, politics, current affairs and social issues. If all of this information is true, then why isn’t he doing something more prestigious (considering he has the “credentials”)? Better yet, why isn’t he concerned about his reputation? After all, if he were to seek a real profession where his “credentials” could be put to use, how many respectable employers are going to want to hire someone who has appeared in adult films? How does Gabriel Shams expect to be taken seriously as an academic and to be fully accepted into the intelligentsia? Am I the only person questioning this individual’s background? Sorry, I’m just not convinced. That being said, I do hope Gabriel Shams pulls through and makes a full recovery.

      1. I actually know Gabriel personally although I haven’t seen him in a few years. The educational credentials he are all legit and so is all the travel and overseas experience. He is a very smart, likable guy but I think he fell in to a bad scene a while back and got pretty seriously into crystal meth. Everything his family says about his health condition – the near heart attack, the kidney failure, the lung problems – all sounds consistent with a crystal meth overdose to me. It’s very sad and fucked up.

    1. Hunter of Porn

      I found his dissertation online a while back. I don’t remember the exact topic but I remember it was pro Palestine.

      I feel bad for saying this but I’d imagine this was brought on by his drug use, barebacking and escorting lifestyle.

    2. That is actually all true. I know him personally. People do porn for lots of reasons. Maybe he needed validation, who knows. But he is actually that smart and a Fulbright scholar.

    3. Not all “respectable” employers have issues with someone’s having done work in the adult film industry you know.

  9. Damn what a terrible situation. I wonder if it is drug related, as Str8UpGayPorn discovered that during his cam sessions he was taking drugs anally with his camming partner.

  10. Awfully vulgar if you to do this story while he lays in a hospital bed in a very serious condition. And your story links to his gofundme? I have a feeling his family doesn’t know about his porn career, nor do they need to. Feel ashamed.

      1. Then he would qualify for medicaid or at the least get Obamacare with the subsidies that the SCOTUS said were legal today.

    1. because like most uninsured today they are either A) too lazy to get insurance B) too cheap to buy it (this is most) or C) the type of people think they could never get sick or die. all of these people can be classified as idiots.

      also note these porn stars are best dressed, lastest iPhone, always snappin pics of them in REALLY COOL places and are generally as shallow and narrow minded as you could be. Insurance??? not for cool porn kids!

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