Christina’s Kidney Disease Journey
Donation protected
Christina has a disease called polycystic kidney disease and was in stage 5 kidney failure prior to receiving a kidney donation from her father last Friday May 10th. Everyone expected the surgeries for both her and her dad to go as planned without much issue. That is not how things happened unfortunately. As I sit here in the hospital Christina has just undergone her 4th surgery in 5 days trying to save this kidney.
After the first initial surgery to transplant the kidney it was determined 5 hours later that the kidney had no blood flow so they rushed her back into surgery to attempt to unblock the blood flow. The surgery was semi successful in that they removed a large blood clot and were optimistic in the flow they had restored. Late that night/early the next morning she was bleeding internally and there was still not as much flow as they hoped for so they took her back into surgery for a third time. They did what they could to make sure the kidney stayed open but during that surgery she aspirated stomach content into her lungs and became seriously ill from it. In the following days She recovered well from the lung aspiration after being on a ventilator in icu. Unfortunately after a test this morning the doctors agreed that there was still little to no blood flow to the kidney so this 4th surgery was a last ditch effort to try to save it. The kidney was not viable and they had to remove it.
From here as she rests and recovers we will begin the search for a new kidney in hopes down the road she can try for another transplant.
Christina’s Medical out of pocket expenses were already over $10,000 dollars just for dr visits, monthly lab tests to be on the list and pre transplant testing for both her and her dad. Her portion of all of these new charges along with all of the insurance premiums, co pays and prescription costs will be a huge burden to bear. She will at least be out of work 6-8 weeks and that’s if her recovery goes well.
Christina is one of the most kind hearted women I know and would give anything she had to someone in need. So I’m hoping that we can all rally together and help her on this very scary journey.
Thank you,
Patti
After the first initial surgery to transplant the kidney it was determined 5 hours later that the kidney had no blood flow so they rushed her back into surgery to attempt to unblock the blood flow. The surgery was semi successful in that they removed a large blood clot and were optimistic in the flow they had restored. Late that night/early the next morning she was bleeding internally and there was still not as much flow as they hoped for so they took her back into surgery for a third time. They did what they could to make sure the kidney stayed open but during that surgery she aspirated stomach content into her lungs and became seriously ill from it. In the following days She recovered well from the lung aspiration after being on a ventilator in icu. Unfortunately after a test this morning the doctors agreed that there was still little to no blood flow to the kidney so this 4th surgery was a last ditch effort to try to save it. The kidney was not viable and they had to remove it.
From here as she rests and recovers we will begin the search for a new kidney in hopes down the road she can try for another transplant.
Christina’s Medical out of pocket expenses were already over $10,000 dollars just for dr visits, monthly lab tests to be on the list and pre transplant testing for both her and her dad. Her portion of all of these new charges along with all of the insurance premiums, co pays and prescription costs will be a huge burden to bear. She will at least be out of work 6-8 weeks and that’s if her recovery goes well.
Christina is one of the most kind hearted women I know and would give anything she had to someone in need. So I’m hoping that we can all rally together and help her on this very scary journey.
Thank you,
Patti
Organizer and beneficiary
Patti Abraham
Organizer
Monroe, MI
Christina Baribeault
Beneficiary