A new day for Chay
Donation protected
This is for Chaylie Gabriel, she is 22 years old and was born and raised in Waianae, Hawaii. She lives with her grandmother and two dogs, Twinkie and Stormie. Chay has always been the sweetest girl, constantly putting loved ones before herself. She enjoys going to the beach, dog training, sushi, and spending time with her girlfriend.
At 17, Chay was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, a rare systemic autoimmune, rheumatic disease that affects the entire body. For years the symptoms she experienced were mostly mild, causing some difficulty in daily life, but nothing life threatening.
Since September 2022, Chaylie has been dealing with severe shortness of breath and chest pains. She was then diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease, which has been made more severe by her Sjögren’s. Throughout five ER trips & hospitalizations, she received different intense medications and treatments. Despite her doctors throwing everything at her, the disease progressed.
This disease has been extremely aggressive; her first ER visit was mid Sept, and by 3:30am Christmas Day her condition was so critical they had to chemically induce a coma. This has rapidly destroyed her lungs, scarring them so badly they’ve become stiff and unusable. Chaylie was highly unstable on life support for 10 days. For half of that it seemed like her body might not hold on. Thankfully Chaylie is young, strong, and determined to keep going.
On January 4th she was accepted for an evaluation to be a candidate for a transplant at Stanford Medical Center. After that the doctors were able to put her on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) a machine that pumps blood outside of her body, removes carbon dioxide, and sends oxygen-filled blood back. Thanks to this, she was taken off the paralytic and sedatives keeping her comatose. Chay has lost most of her strength, but is working hard to get it back.
Chay is moving toward a lung transplant — her only chance to live.
Currently she is at Stanford Medical Center being evaluated. With Chaylie being only 22 and in stable condition since being put on ECMO we are hopeful she will be a viable candidate to get the lung transplant she needs. These past months have been a blur of fear, confusion, and waiting. This experience has truly been horrible for Chay. She has been in a lot of pain, terror and discomfort. However this resilient girl pushes herself to get stronger every day. Watching her fight, we know she can do it!
This fund is to help Chaylie have a smooth recovery. Its purpose is to help cover living expenses and medical bills as she has relocated to California until she is fully healed from the transplant. This is a terrifyingly uncertain situation for our family in so many ways, having to worry less about finances would relieve some of that weight. Thank you for reading, please share our story and donate if you can. Anything is appreciated.
At 17, Chay was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, a rare systemic autoimmune, rheumatic disease that affects the entire body. For years the symptoms she experienced were mostly mild, causing some difficulty in daily life, but nothing life threatening.
Since September 2022, Chaylie has been dealing with severe shortness of breath and chest pains. She was then diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease, which has been made more severe by her Sjögren’s. Throughout five ER trips & hospitalizations, she received different intense medications and treatments. Despite her doctors throwing everything at her, the disease progressed.
This disease has been extremely aggressive; her first ER visit was mid Sept, and by 3:30am Christmas Day her condition was so critical they had to chemically induce a coma. This has rapidly destroyed her lungs, scarring them so badly they’ve become stiff and unusable. Chaylie was highly unstable on life support for 10 days. For half of that it seemed like her body might not hold on. Thankfully Chaylie is young, strong, and determined to keep going.
On January 4th she was accepted for an evaluation to be a candidate for a transplant at Stanford Medical Center. After that the doctors were able to put her on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) a machine that pumps blood outside of her body, removes carbon dioxide, and sends oxygen-filled blood back. Thanks to this, she was taken off the paralytic and sedatives keeping her comatose. Chay has lost most of her strength, but is working hard to get it back.
Chay is moving toward a lung transplant — her only chance to live.
Currently she is at Stanford Medical Center being evaluated. With Chaylie being only 22 and in stable condition since being put on ECMO we are hopeful she will be a viable candidate to get the lung transplant she needs. These past months have been a blur of fear, confusion, and waiting. This experience has truly been horrible for Chay. She has been in a lot of pain, terror and discomfort. However this resilient girl pushes herself to get stronger every day. Watching her fight, we know she can do it!
This fund is to help Chaylie have a smooth recovery. Its purpose is to help cover living expenses and medical bills as she has relocated to California until she is fully healed from the transplant. This is a terrifyingly uncertain situation for our family in so many ways, having to worry less about finances would relieve some of that weight. Thank you for reading, please share our story and donate if you can. Anything is appreciated.
Co-organizers (2)
Chonte Jardin
Organizer
Kapolei, HI
Chasie Fujioka
Beneficiary
Meredith Bowman
Co-organizer