Since the age of 14, Katie has battled primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Over the past 17 years, she has endured portal hypertension, esophageal varices, pancreatitis, gastrointestinal bleeds, countless hospitalizations, and endless doctor appointments. Despite everything, she has continued to fight.
Now, as a wife and mom to her beautiful 4-year-old daughter, Katie is facing her biggest battle yet. Her cirrhosis has progressed to the point that she needs a liver transplant. She will also be having her massively enlarged spleen removed.
A few months ago, after learning that her husband would not be a suitable living liver donor, Katie was placed on the anonymous living donor list. Just two days later, she received the life-changing call that a donor had been found. Someone she has never met stepped forward to give her the incredible gift of a second chance at life. Her anonymous donor truly is a living angel. 💚
While this transplant brings so much hope, the journey comes with significant financial challenges. Between medical bills, her husband taking time away from work, lodging, frequent trips 1.5 hour trips to the hospital for post-transplant appointments, medications, and other unexpected expenses, the financial burden on their family is substantial.
We are hoping to surround Katie and her family with love and support during this difficult time so they can focus on what matters most: her recovery and the precious time she gets to spend with her family. Her husband, James will be managing the donations to help pay for medical bills while Katie is hospitalized.
Any donation, no matter the amount, will make a difference. If you are unable to donate, sharing this fundraiser and keeping Katie and her family in your thoughts and prayers means so much.
Thank you for helping support Katie on this journey toward healing, hope, and more beautiful years with her husband and little girl. 💚
UPDATES:
10/20- Katie’s 15 hour living liver transplant and splenectomy was successful. The doctor was very happy about her liver transplant and removed her severely enlarged 7 pound spleen. She went to ICU in stable condition shortly after midnight.
10/21- Katie started showing signs of bleeding. Her drains were putting out a lot of blood. Katie rapidly went into hemorrhagic shock. Received 7 units of blood and multiple blood products and life saving drugs. She was taken back to the OR for emergency surgery to find the bleeding. She was in surgery for 4 hours. Her bleeding was noted to be coming from her severely dilated splenic vein and had mostly stopped. She returned to the ICU to stay intubated.
10/22- Katie’s morning liver ultrasound showed a clot forming in her portal vein. By the time she got to CT to confirm it had grown. She was placed on a heparin drip and taken back to emergency surgery again to have her 3rd surgery in the last 3 days. She was in surgery for 7 hours. The surgeon said the clot was a complete obstruction and went from the tail of her pancreas to her severely dilated splenic vein to her portal vein and into the new liver. It was thankfully caught very early and didn’t cause any damage to the new liver. Surgeons had to take down both her portal vein and bile duct, but were able to completely remove all of the clot in both directions. Because of the clot Katie will have to be on blood thinners long term. She returned to the ICU to remain intubated.
10/23- Katie has been intubated and sedated for 3 days now. She passed her breathing trial and was able to be extubated! One of the first things she said post extubation was “Poor Jimmy!”. She was very lethargic and got pain meds around the clock which made her so sedated and very hard to rouse. But she did make it up to the chair and had some sips of water.
10/24- Katie was very alert today. Which everyone was very glad to see. She had a lot of questions about what happened and was joking around. She did have to get 2 bags of blood and a tube down her nose to help decompress her stomach. She did even better getting up to the chair today. She got her hair washed, brushed and braided. She is improving little by little every day.
Please pray for no more bleeding, no clotting, no infection, and her new liver to continue showing every day that it’s working great! We are so thankful for her amazing healthcare team. And of course none of this would be possible for her without her donor, who we hope is having an easy recovery. We are so grateful to her donor! 💚
