Maurice Ellison Road to a Heart Transplant

First, I would like to say thank you in advance. Thank you for the kind words that you may say. Thank you for the subtle prayers that you may say in my name or in my favor. With that being said, hello my name is Maurice Ellison and I am the father to 2 beautiful daughters age 13 and 8 and husband to a woman who has never left my side. I know that some may think that this campaign would be for a fund to support the 3 lovely women of my life because I am truly outnumbered. I honestly wish that this were the case unfortunately it is not. See the thing is I am a 37-year-old congestive heart failure patient and I have fought and battled this affiliation for the past 4 years. I still remember the events that leads to this diagnosis. I was a HVAC technician and working at Goodwill as a distribution driver, well on this morning I felt tired, disoriented but I had become accustomed to feeling this way because it would usually go away. This would be the morning that would change my life forever, my body just could not sustain, and I went down at work. They rushed me to the Er thinking that I was having a heart attack or stroke and only through extensive test discovered I had 40lbs of fluid and only 5 percent heart function.  I could not believe it I had never truly had any health problem beside a common cold and maybe the flu twice. I was what you would imagine a picture of health. I was admitted for two weeks and my role of father. provider and my sense of being had been effectively neutralized. I was worried more about my family than the diagnosis. Luckily, I had a coworker that stepped forward and said that she would start my first GoFund me, well long story in that she took all the funds and ran. I did not let this deter me, my wife took the load of the household and I focused on my health starting with having a life vest for 2 years, then transitioning to a pacemaker/defibrillator to now ultimately needing an LVAD while waiting hopefully for a transplant. I am O positive, and I was informed that it may take a while, but I am still hopeful and optimistic.

My next step in this journey will be to have a heart pump which is the LVAD attached to my heart to help keep me stable until a heart becomes available, I will need to stay at Vanderbilt for at least 2 weeks depending on how my recover. After the weeks in the hospital, I will transition into having to rent a house in Nashville and reside there for at least 6 to 8 wks. Then I would be able to come home and hopefully remain strong and stable til I receive a heart. The transplant team has begun with the initial cost of staying in and being within an hour of the hospital and it totals to 10,000 dollars. This seems like a huge amount mainly because it all rest on my family who have been with me every step of the way. This will cover my housing contingency as well as food and transportation. So many times, I have laid awake wondering why me, why can’t I give up and why am I still here? I think of my family and I cannot give up because they did not, and they will not give up on me. Then I think about the grace and mercy that I have been shown through favor, I am still here, I am still alive and I still have fight in me. I am not the best with words, but I am humbly asking you for any donations that you may be able to provide and if you cannot then please say a prayer for me and my family. I say thank you in advance for taking the time to read my story and praying for me.

Maurice D Ellison