Caleb's Medical Expenses
Donation protected
I am Laurie Kellner and we are raising funds to help cover the medical expenses for Caleb Smith from Justin, Texas. His Mother is a very dear friend of ours and they are incurring astronomical medical bills trying to save Caleb's life. Please take the time to read Caleb's story below.
Caleb Aaron Smith is a quiet, loving, often charmingly-awkward, and introspective thinking young man. He in many ways is a very typical teenager, however, also precisely unique. His life was not free of challenges- similar to many kids his age of 15, but he had also been recently tasked to navigate through complicated emotions of recently being diagnosed with Asperger's, a high functioning form of Autism. He had been seeking understanding like any other young adult sifting through desires for independence, acceptance, and purpose of life. On a rainy day in January of 2015, his life's journey took a sudden and dramatic change.
He had been feeling under the weather that day thinking he had just a chest cold, but soon started to cough up blood, which alerted his mother to immediately take him in for medical care. Within 24 hours of receiving medical attention, Caleb was diagnosed with severe dilated cardiomyopathy, and would soon learn that he would need a heart transplant to survive. A blessed call came into his ICU room on the last day of February that Caleb would receive the ultimate gift of a new heart. After undergoing the heart transplant Caleb made a steady and often miraculous recovery, responding well to therapies, needed medications, and thriving with a world-class medical team's excellent and thorough support. He was soon able to return home and establish a new "routine" for daily life. He flourished in understanding his now needed daily medications and often constant medical appointments, using his natural skills to be regimented and consistent to help keep him medically organized. He also made up lost school days for his sophomore year, and by the next school year he was caught up and ready to begin his junior year with the rest of his classmates. His new lease on life had begun to stabilize and he had grown in both stature (now 6'5") and in maturity that only one can when understanding the fragility of life.
Last Friday, Caleb's life journey was again challenged and continues on a pathway of several unknowns. Over the last 18 months Caleb's health and treatment had been excellent with no more than sniffle, but Friday he developed cold symptoms and had been feeling run down. He was taken into the hospital first thing Saturday and it was discovered that his donor heart had begun rejecting his body. He is currently in a fight for his life with his family and the amazing pediatric cardiologist & transplant team of Dallas Children's Hospital by his side. As he fights for recovery, many parts of the upcoming journey are unknown, but we know certain things about the spirit of Caleb. He is brave and a fighter, independent and strong, and may not always know how to express his true feelings, but truly and deeply cares about the support around him. I do believe that he would want us, his family, to express our indescribable appreciation and humility for your thoughts, feelings, well wishes, and prayers for his health and recovery. We graciously give thanks for all of your love, and happily and humbly thank God for your continued support.
The Pendergraft Family
Caleb Aaron Smith is a quiet, loving, often charmingly-awkward, and introspective thinking young man. He in many ways is a very typical teenager, however, also precisely unique. His life was not free of challenges- similar to many kids his age of 15, but he had also been recently tasked to navigate through complicated emotions of recently being diagnosed with Asperger's, a high functioning form of Autism. He had been seeking understanding like any other young adult sifting through desires for independence, acceptance, and purpose of life. On a rainy day in January of 2015, his life's journey took a sudden and dramatic change.
He had been feeling under the weather that day thinking he had just a chest cold, but soon started to cough up blood, which alerted his mother to immediately take him in for medical care. Within 24 hours of receiving medical attention, Caleb was diagnosed with severe dilated cardiomyopathy, and would soon learn that he would need a heart transplant to survive. A blessed call came into his ICU room on the last day of February that Caleb would receive the ultimate gift of a new heart. After undergoing the heart transplant Caleb made a steady and often miraculous recovery, responding well to therapies, needed medications, and thriving with a world-class medical team's excellent and thorough support. He was soon able to return home and establish a new "routine" for daily life. He flourished in understanding his now needed daily medications and often constant medical appointments, using his natural skills to be regimented and consistent to help keep him medically organized. He also made up lost school days for his sophomore year, and by the next school year he was caught up and ready to begin his junior year with the rest of his classmates. His new lease on life had begun to stabilize and he had grown in both stature (now 6'5") and in maturity that only one can when understanding the fragility of life.
Last Friday, Caleb's life journey was again challenged and continues on a pathway of several unknowns. Over the last 18 months Caleb's health and treatment had been excellent with no more than sniffle, but Friday he developed cold symptoms and had been feeling run down. He was taken into the hospital first thing Saturday and it was discovered that his donor heart had begun rejecting his body. He is currently in a fight for his life with his family and the amazing pediatric cardiologist & transplant team of Dallas Children's Hospital by his side. As he fights for recovery, many parts of the upcoming journey are unknown, but we know certain things about the spirit of Caleb. He is brave and a fighter, independent and strong, and may not always know how to express his true feelings, but truly and deeply cares about the support around him. I do believe that he would want us, his family, to express our indescribable appreciation and humility for your thoughts, feelings, well wishes, and prayers for his health and recovery. We graciously give thanks for all of your love, and happily and humbly thank God for your continued support.
The Pendergraft Family
Organizer and beneficiary
Laurie Kellner
Organizer
Justin, TX
Rebecca Pendergraft
Beneficiary