Anna Knapek's Medical Fund

How does a 16-year-old, healthy and beautiful girl suddenly have to be rushed to a world-class 'University of Minnesota Hospital' to eventually require emergency services because of “Chronic Renal Failure”?

9/19/17 Anna and her mom arrived at 11:15 at the ER of UMMC and the staff immediately started their diagnosis and work to control her very high blood pressure (220/170). Anna’s Hemoglobin levels of 7 were extremely low showing Anemia (normal is 12-15). They took an x-ray of her lungs which appeared to have fluid, revealing possible pneumonia. They took an ultrasound of her heart which was enlarged due to her heart working overtime. The Doctors were on a conference call with Anna’s Dad and said that he should turn around from Little Falls, MN and head to the hospital because of the acute situation.

9/20/17 Doctors worked to control and continue to lower Anna’s blood pressure, seeking family histories, known events of Anna during the last few weeks to months. Doctors and staff continued building the puzzle to help to create the timeline on why and when Anna and her kidneys began to deteriorate. Anna received her first blood transfusion. Preparations were made at 11:45 am for surgery to have installed a “port” or Central line for the anticipated Dialysis routine Anna would require.

9/21/17 Anna woke up at 7:20 am. An eye specialist came in to examine Anna’s eyes. The right eye was 20/20, but the Left eye was 20/40. Damage to both eyes had taken place because of the overexertion of her heart for at least the last 6 months, causing some pressure to eyeball vessels resulting in the Left eye having occlusions or spikes or segments that caused vision to be compromised in her Left eye. At 9 am Anna began her 2nd round of Dialysis. Doctors working to restore Anna’s kidney functions referred to her condition as “Acute” and “Chronic” with “Kidney failure” added. Anna’s parents discussed if the likely expectation was to lead to at minimum – Dialysis and – at maximum, a Kidney transplant.

9/22/17 Anna woke up at 8:30 am. She was prepped for surgery for the Renal and Necrosis team to perform the kidney biopsy. The Doctor performing the procedure came to meet Anna and asked if she had taken ibuprofen in the last 2 weeks. Since she had just a week ago, they had to cancel surgery until next week.

9/23/17 Her hemoglobin is 9 today compared to 7 yesterday. We are hopeful that Anna will have her kidney biopsy early this week to determine the health of her kidneys. She began dialysis at 10:30 am which ended at 2:30 pm. They took 6lbs of fluid off of Anna’s body.

9/24/17 Nurses woke Anna up at 6:30 am with a needle poke for lab testing. She went back asleep until they had to wake her up again at 8:30 am. Her blood pressure is a little high, but normal for her compared to yesterday. Her creatinine level is 8.6 down from 12.4 yesterday. The normal range is .5-1.Anna started doing her homework after breakfast. I mean seriously, what took her so long. As she was taking a math test in bed, she looked over at me and said: "I was supposed to take this test on Tuesday but my kidneys decided to take a break!" We laughed. I mean we really laughed. I couldn't believe that she was making fun of her kidneys.

9/25/17 Anna is released to go home after she completes her Dialysis. Home at last, now for the future.

The future: with two kidneys that are only working/operating at 7%, can you say transplant? And let's not leave out three dialysis appointments every week, effective immediately.

We need your support now, it will help us cover a list of expenses not yet known, deductibles, travel, meals, parking, meds, and more. We will use these funds to cover deductibles and the list of unknowns. Please help us hit our goal by the end of February 2018.

Luke 6:30
Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.