"have a heart" for lena antonio

hello everyone, we are reaching out in hopes to help and raise funds for our friend lena antonio. lena was born with a very rare congenital heart defect called truncus arteriosus and in the 24 years she has spent on this earth has undergone more surgeries then can be counted on two hands. this year has been an extremely difficult year for lena as she has had multiple hospital stays both at rhode island hospital, and brigham and women's for her heart failing. she had a pace maker placed a few months ago, then shortly after suffered a stroke and was rushed right back to the hospital. shortly after her pacemaker was placed lena's heart conditioned worsened further, she was rushed to boston where they performed an emergency surgery where they placed a bivad. a bivad is a machine that basically pumps for her heart as her heart can no longer pump for itself. this machine has to stay attached to lena at all times, and also has to be plugged into an outlet at all times as it only has a 45 minute battery life. it weighs a little over 30 lbs, and is about the size of a medium suitcase that is wheeled around. it is her life support until she receives a heart from a donor. she is high on the list for the transplant and we hope that she will receive a heart soon. as you can imagine these hospital stays, medications, machines, and surgeries have been very expensive for her and her mother ellen who has not left her side. unfortunately, once she receives the heart transplant bills will only further increase for them. i reach out to you to ask for any help you may be able to provide for this amazing young woman. as you can ask anyone who knows her, and they will tell you she is the strongest most kind young woman who has been through more in 24 short years of life then majority of people go through in an entire lifetime. we hope to be able to raise funds to help her be able to pay her medical bills and not have to worry about financial burden when it comes time for her to receive her new heart. i thank you for taking the time to read this, and your consideration in helping this amazing young women with a donation.