Katherine’s open heart surgery fund

Hello everyone, my name is Kyle. My fiancé Katherine has suffered so much in the last couple years. She was forced to quit working as a CNA due to her illnesses in 2017. And now she needs open heart surgery to repair an artery on the side of her heart that has a congenital (born with it) defect which means she was born with an extra piece of muscle over her artery. That means that every time her heart beats she is only able to get about 15% of the normal amount of blood to the left side of her heart. This causes severe chest pain and frequent hospitalizations. The nearest hospital to us that can perform this surgery is Stanford in Palo Alto, California. We live in kamiah Idaho area . So we will need to drive to Stanford, which will likely be a 2 day drive due to Katherine’s illnesses and her inability to be in a car for long periods of time. She is on oxygen for respiratory failure and pulmonary hypertension which makes things trickier, and she also has right sided heart failure which makes long trips in the car difficult on her body due to swelling in her legs. We will need to quarantine for 14 days after arriving in California due to Covid-19. Then she will have a week of testing to map her heart so that they know the extent of her deformity. The nurse from Stanford called us this morning and said to anticipate being in the hospital for a week to a week and a half, and then staying close to the hospital for a week to 2 weeks before she will be good to travel. So in total we will likely be down there for 5-6 weeks. This GoFundMe will be used for housing while in California, gas, food, boarding Katherine’s service dog, and any other costs related to surgery. Anything left over will be used for any costs associated with Katherine’s care. Katherine is on disability currently, she worked as a CNA at St. Mary’s in the Cottonwood area and at Beaumont Grosse Pointe and St. John’s Macomb in Warren, while she lived in the Detroit area for 3 years. I am currently employed at St.Luke’s as a CNA and due to Covid-19 I am able to work as many shifts as I can but even if I work 6 days a week doing 12 hour shifts we won’t have enough saved to cover the trip as they are trying to get her in quickly because she’s showing signs of heart muscle not getting enough oxygen. We appreciate any donations, prayers, and sharing this GoFundMe on your social media platforms. We will keep everyone updated on how Katherine is doing. She is a wonderful mother to her 11 yo son Connor, and the best partner I could have asked for and we can’t wait to get her through this and getting to be chest pain free for the first time in 5 years.