Main fundraiser photo

Gena's medical expenses

My name is Ivan Greager and I'm a friend and co-worker of Gena Elam. I started this GoFundMe to assist Gena in covering the mounting medical and personal expenses arising from yet another extended stay in hospital. But before we get to the donation request, let me give you some backstory on this amazing and inspirational little lady…

Gena was born 38 years ago with a series of challenging medical conditions. Not only was she born with a single ventricle, an extremely rare congenital heart defect (CHD) affecting about 5 out of every 100,000 live births, but she also has situs inversus, another rare condition in which all organs are mirrored or reversed from their normal positions. The combination of these congenital conditions has required Gena to face up to more surgical interventions than anybody should ever reasonably have to contemplate in a lifetime. The current count is around 25 procedures, including 6 heart surgeries one of which resulted in a life threatening Staph infection! These surgeries have turned her into the proverbial bionic woman with a dual chambered pace-maker, a mechanical AV valve and a stent.

The scary part is that she is not a transplant candidate and her remaining heart tissue is so scarred from all the surgeries there isn’t a lot of healthy tissue left.  She lives every day knowing that should her heart have any further serious complications, there is no way to fix it.  The beautiful part of this ugly story is that no one would look at Gena and think, “that girl has half of a heart”. She is one of the oldest living patients with this combination of rare congenital heart defects, and she has gotten to that point by not allowing this genetic misfortune to define her.

Instead she has been determined to show how much a CHD woman can achieve. Aside from her regular day job, Gena qualified as both a nutritionist and fitness instructor in order to demonstrate the benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle to other CHD patients. She spends time providing ministry and counselling to pediatric CHD patients. She writes a blog to share her journey and provide guidance to a younger generation of heart patients, in the hope that they will seek inspiration, comfort and direction from her own experiences. When the doctors told her that she could not do any strenuous aerobic exercise, she trained and successfully completed a half marathon. When the doctors said she couldn’t be an athlete, she summarily started weight training and transformed herself into an amateur bodybuilder. No obstacle is too large for this lady to overcome! 

“Be strong and courageous”, says the Lord. Gena is both of these things and so much more. Her determination, bravery, optimism and sheer guts are an inspiration to everyone that has had the pleasure of meeting her.

As if Gena hasn’t gone through enough already, a recent turn of events has knocked her squarely on the chin.  She experienced an alarmingly rapid reduction in her oxygen saturation levels – a few months ago she was an active amateur weight lifter and today she struggles to slowly walk 300ft without being completely of breath. She now lives 24 hours a day on oxygen. She passes out uncontrollably several times a day. Gena’s unique anatomy has attracted a lot of academic attention over the years however the specialist medical teams at the Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Center and the Mayo Clinic are currently at a loss with regards to the source of the current health problems. She was admitted into Memorial Hermann Hospital on November 23rd 2016 in order to allow closer monitoring of her oxygen levels as well as to control her pain. Without a clear clinical and/or surgical plan it is not clear how long Gena will need to stay in hospital. Although she is due to start receiving disability insurance the end of November 2016, this is only 60% of her regular salary and does not come close to covering the rapidly escalating medical bills.

She is strong-willed, fiercely independent and isn't used to asking for help. She certainly does not want people to feel this is about making money from her unique medical condition. However we would like to give her the financial reserves to cover immediate personal and medical expenses, so that she can focus 100% of her energy into getting well again and hopefully return to support her many CHD-related charitable causes. Any money raised beyond Gena’s actual personal and medical expenses will be donated to the American Heart Association. If, by the grace of God, we get to that point we will of course report back on how much money was donated.

Thanks so much for reading about Gena’s story and expressing some interest in helping.  I kindly ask anyone that has been touched by her beaming smile, zest for life and downright sassiness to help donate what they can – any donation will be immensely appreciated. If you can't I understand and would just ask you to share this with as many people as you can. We also ask for your prayers as Gena continues to fight the next battle in what has been a very, very long war.

With love and thanks,
The Greager family

PS:      Gena is a talented writer and her blog is definitely worth a read. If you are interested, please visit www.genaelam.com .

Donate

Donations 

  • Kristin Mueller
    • $150 
    • 7 yrs
Donate

Organizer and beneficiary

Gena Elam
Organizer
Alief, TX
Gena Elam
Beneficiary

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.