Please Help Grant & Tara Leslie Open Heart Surgery

Grant & Tara Leslie are a young (twenty-something) couple who have been married 3 1/2 years.

Before their first anniversary, Grant was hospitalized for extremely low hemoglobin, and it was discovered that his kidneys were failing from an autoimmune attack called iGA glumeronephropathy. He also had weird things throughout his lung X-rays. Biopsies of everything revealed the presence of histoplasmosis, a fungal infection. He probably got it as an agriculture student at UT (University of Tennessee). He may have been more susceptible to it due to the medication he had to take for a very painful and debilitating condition called Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS). They made the determination that saving his lungs would take priority over his kidneys. He began two years of treatment for the histoplasmosis in his lungs. It was only a couple months before his kidneys failed entirely (treatment for that would have encourage growth of the histoplasmosis) and he began two years of peritoneal dialysis. Since July 2026, when it seemed the fungal infection had cleared, he began working the steps to go on the kidney transplant list. His Hidradenitis Suppurativa recurred and he began taking an immunosuppressant again. It appears that gave the histoplasmosis the environment needed to redevelop. During this past month of October, he developed what he thought was a respiratory infection. In mid-October, he developed pain and heaviness in his chest and it was discovered that he had fluid surrounding his heart. Now we know he has an abscess in the aortic root as well as calcification there and in two other valves. He’s been in three different hospitals this week, and is now being sent to the Cleveland Clinic for a very difficult and complicated open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve and either debride or replace the other two that have been affected (the working theory is the histoplasmosis did that). He is awaiting a bed and transport to Ohio from Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville. Grant is receiving excellent care, which has so far included a blood transfusion and daily hemodialysis. He looks and feels stronger, which gives us high hopes for the outcome of the surgery. Tara is unable to work, of course, and they relied only on her job and Grant’s disability checks. He had been planning to work for H & R Block soon, but that’s on hold for the foreseeable future too, as recovery will be long, and he is likely to be in the hospital for some time.

We are asking for any financial help that you might be willing to offer. But perhaps even more importantly we are asking you to petition our Great and Merciful Heavenly Father for Grant's pristine and miraculous healing.