Emily's heart surgery fund!

Hi! I'm raising funds for my dear friend Emily Smith.

In the summer of 2023, Emily started to have some health issues. She visited her primary, which led to months of different tests and seeing different specialists. This all led to her current diagnoses of Functional Neurological Disorder with non-epileptic seizures, chronic pain, hyper-mobility, and an immune deficiency.

After an MRI, doctors discovered that Emily has an aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA). ARSA is where the right subclavian artery comes out of the left side of the heart instead of the right, causing the right subclavian artery to loop behind the esophagus to reach the right side of the body. It affects around 1% of people. At around this time last year, her Vascular Surgeon said it was stable.

In January of this year Emily had an EGD to scope her throat due to difficulty swallowing and shortness of breath. The EGD showed that her ARSA was now compressing her esophagus, causing those symptoms. This is a condition called Dysphagia Lusoria. Her Vascular Surgeon is planning to do a heart surgery this summer to reroute the right subclavian artery. At this time, she will meet with her surgeon on June 2nd to plan the final details before the surgery.

Besides the surgery, Emily also does monthly infusions, does her best to manage her chronic pain, and wrangles her three boys (Hunter who’s 11, Finn who’s 5, and Asher who’s 4) while her fiancé works overtime.

Emily is a bright light in the world and it would mean so much if we could help support her while she and her family go through this. Funds will help with food, medical bills, gas, and daily expenses as a family of 5.