Liver Transplant Related Expenses

  In mid May of this year, Rachel was hospitalized at Kaweah Delta Medical center with Jaundice.  The providers at Kaweah Delta discovered a blockage in her Bile duct and she underwent a procedure called an ERCP where a stent was placed in her bile duct to allow bile to flow.  During this procedure it was discovered that there was a Hepato Biliary Maljunction with Choledochal cysts.  This translates into a Congenital defect of the Hepato Biliary junction that caused Bile and Pancreatic enzymes to regurgitate into Rachel's liver from birth.    This maljunction eventually caused narrowing of the bile duct to the point of it completely closing off preventing any flow of bile or pancreatic enzymes leading to her trip to Kaweah Delta.  Upon admission to Kaweah Delta the physicians describe her Liver as unremarkable, and Rachel was released from Kaweah Delta following the ERCP with a Bilirubin of 17.5 and climbing,  3 days later I drove her to Stanford Medical Center ER where she was diagnosed with and treated for Liver failure.  It was determined at that point that her liver was more than 90% damaged.
  
  Rachel is now in need of a Liver Transplant.

  She is currently a patient of USC Keck Hospital and is receiving world class care with a team of specialists there, which requires constant travel to the Los Angeles area.  In addition to Rachel needing a liver transplant, she will have to have a surgical stent exchange every 2-3 months for the rest of her life, and now there is a lesion the size of a grape on her liver that was not there 3 months ago.  Rachel also has Pancreatic, Gallbladder, and spleen involvement which is causing her a great deal of pain.  She needs to have a surgical removal of her Gallbladder however there is a high likelihood that if she were to undergo the necessary surgical procedure at this time that her liver would fail again and she would not survive.

  I am starting this Fundraiser on her behalf in the hopes of relieving some of the financial burden of these repeated trips to Los Angeles as Rachel is a Lash Artist who owns a Spa that has been mandated to close since early March.

  Thank you in advance for any help you are able to offer, and please check back as we expect to have more information after her appointments on October 19th.