By Grace McCarthy
A 43-year-old Blaine man is being remembered for helping people around the world through alternative medicine following his death at the Peace Arch border crossing.
Trinn A. Hatch, 43, co-founded Jampha Loving Kindness, a Blaine-based holistic wellness company that he started after experiencing the power of plant-based medicine to overcome a life-threatening leg injury. He dedicated himself to crafting herbal medicine and creating individualized plans for people around the world who sought his healing, said his mother, Mary Hatch.
“He has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known,” Mary Hatch said. “When you were talking to Trinn, he totally saw you. He held that space and that place to fully respond to anyone who came to him needing help.”
Hatch died in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody on September 20 from a presumed artery blockage. The official death and toxicology report will likely be finished in the next month, according to Whatcom County Medical Examiner Dr. Aldo Fusaro.
CBP announced Hatch’s death on October 23. According to border officials, Hatch was apprehended after driving the wrong way at the Peace Arch border crossing. He was found with illegal substances once apprehended. Officers discovered Hatch was unconscious when they moved him to secondary inspection and, despite immediate live-saving measures, were unable to revive him.
Hatch was born October 1981 in Tampa, Florida and spent his younger years in Florida and Australia.
In 2013, Hatch was the victim of a life-threatening assault in Washington, DC. Doctors said his leg needed to be amputated to save his life, but his mother refused, believing in the power of prayer. Hatch recovered, only to have his life revolve around balancing medications – at one point tallying 17 prescriptions.
Hatch turned to prayer as his mental health declined, bogged down by brain fog from the heavy medication. Through prayer and searching for a new job, he discovered using plants as medication, including cannabidiol (CBD), in the budding marijuana field and eventually began working at a marijuana dispensary.
Hatch was able to stop his prescriptions, even for his blood pressure, which was the most difficult to manage. He continued down the path of holistic wellness and later expanded his research into terpenes, the aromatic compounds found in plants, and other traditional Tibetan medicine.
Along with alternative medicine, Hatch’s injury brought him closer to family in Washington state. He later moved to Blaine, where he co-founded Jampha about five years ago with Carina Rodriguez. The online business, based out of an industrial unit on Peace Portal Drive, sells terpenes and botanical infusions. A representative for Jampha could not be reached by press time.
Hatch would create health plans for those in need, praying over the medicine he’d give and providing guidance at all hours of the day. His plans healed many, including some who were on their death beds, Mary Hatch said.
Since his death, Mary Hatch said she has been inundated with messages from people all over the world expressing how her son helped them.
One of those clients, Pamela Santos, said in a public social media post that Hatch’s medicine and guidance healed her from late stage Lyme disease, which she’d tried battling with antibiotics for a decade.
“Trinn saved me when I was on the ground praying for help,” Santos wrote.
Emotional pain from the 2013 attack caught up to Hatch and ultimately led to his last hours, his mother said. Despite navigating his own obstacles, Mary Hatch said her son lived every day providing kindness and support to anyone who needed it.
“My son had this incredible impact through his compassion and kindness,” Mary Hatch said. “He was able to be present for those who were suffering so deeply and had no one to turn to.”
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