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Hello and thank you for visiting our Go Fund Me page. We have started this campaign with the hope of helping our sister, Tracy, who has been on a very long and difficult journey. This story might be a bit long for some, but we ask you bear with us. As long as this story might seem, we promise you it has been a much longer story for our sister who has lived it for almost two decades of her life.
In her mid thirties Tracy began having problems with her heart rhythms, without apparent cause or forewarning. The problems started "small" and, for a time, were managed by her doctors with various medications. Despite our sister’s dedication to a healthy lifestyle, proper eating, and regular exercise, as time passed, she required more extensive medical procedures and more powerful medications. As her condition deteriorated Tracy would require pacemaker surgery, then a hybrid atria fibrillation ablation surgery, and some time after, defibrillator surgery. Her heart would fail slowly and painfully over a span of 17 years. In fall 2017, after 16 years of fighting and only slowly giving ground to her condition, the deterioration of Tracy’s heart started rapidly accelerating and overpowering all of the treatment options Tracy’s medical team had devised. Just before Thanksgiving, after teaching a nighttime EMT class and while standing alone in a hallway, her heart would momentarily become too weak to pump enough blood to keep her conscious. She fell, hitting her head violently on the hard floor. Tracy suffered a skull fracture and a brain contusion as a result. Her injuries would keep her in the hospital ICU for several days through the Thanksgiving holiday. The blow to her head was so severe, it left her without most of her senses of taste and smell.
A few months later, in spring 2018, Tracy and her doctors acknowledged her heart failure had advanced to the point where they had no other options for treatment. Tracy would need a new heart. In March of 2018 she was officially placed on the heart transplant list. Shortly after, Tracy would go into the hospital for a procedure to drain fluid that had built up in her abdomen - a result of poor heart function and blood flow. The procedure was successful and afforded Tracy some temporary relief.
In June of 2018 our sister awoke late at night, dazed and disoriented. She tried to call for help but no coherent words would come out. Fortunately, a family member discovered Tracy a short time later sitting up in her bed and exhibiting the signs of an ongoing stroke. Tracy was rushed to the hospital and into emergency surgery. This was an especially terrifying time for our entire family. Because of her skull fracture and brain contusion in November, medications that would normally be used to treat stroke victims were not a viable and safe course of treatment. Tracy’s only chance was angiogram surgery. This surgery required the doctors to go through her heart and into her brain to clear the clots that had caused the stroke. Because of the weakened condition of her heart, no one knew if she would survive the night.
After five agonizing hours, Tracy and her medical team emerged from the operating room - the doctors having removed not one, but two blood clots from her brain. (We would later learn that the stroke was caused by her heart condition and the inability of her heart to properly move blood through her circulatory system.) Our sister survived both the stroke and the operation. And though she was tended to quickly, it would be some time before anyone would know the full extent of the damage done to her brain and body. At first, Tracy wasn't able to read, write, speak, or even move steadily enough to get out of her ICU hospital bed. Her gross motor functions (moving arms and limbs) returned fully after a few days but she had weeks of intense therapy. Her fine motor functions took weeks longer. Her ability to read, write, and speak were affected most severely. Though she has made great strides since her stroke, she continues to receive therapy for these affected areas.
As a further result of the stroke, though the condition of her heart continued to degrade at an advancing pace, Tracy was temporarily suspended from the heart transplant list. She wouldn't be eligible to be 'reactivated' on the list (receive a heart transplant) until the doctors were satisfied with her recovery from the stroke and surgery. After being in the hospital ICU for weeks, and working very hard in daily physical, occupational, and speech therapy sessions for months, Tracy was reactivated on the heart transplant list September 2018. In November right after Thanksgiving Tracy would once again be checked into the hospital for another heart-related procedure. At the end of that procedure Tracy was told that her body could take no more and that she would have to remain at NYU Langone hospital indefinitely until a suitable donor heart could be found. She stayed in the hospital for several weeks with IV medications helping her heart to pump.
Tracy, previously having been an avid athlete, had lost considerable weight and muscle mass and had become frighteningly thin and frail. While in the hospital, her heart became unable to pump enough blood on its own to keep Tracy alive. Tracy underwent a procedure that inserted an assistive device called an “balloon pump” into her leg and left her connected to machines to work the device on a 24 hour basis. The balloon pump left her completely bedridden. This is how she would remain until her transplant.
Finally, after all of the struggling, hoping, and waiting - at 1 am on Sunday, December 9th, we got the call. A viable matching donor heart had become available and Tracy would be heading into surgery later that afternoon.
At the age of 49, our sister’s failed heart was removed and the donor heart transplanted. Tracy’s initial recovery in the hospital was excruciatingly painful as transplant protocol prevented Tracy from having anything more than Tylenol to help manage the pain. Despite this, Tracy somehow managed through the misery of the surgery, the incision in her chest, the cut bones, and the multitude of tubes coming out of her torso. All of this was exacerbated by the doctors orders for Tracy to be out of bed and moving within 24 hours of her coming out of her post surgical sedation.
As anyone familiar with the transplant process can tell you, this story told so far is just the beginning. Tracy will have at least a year-long recovery process. In fact, a transplant isn’t even considered a success until after a full year has passed and the patient has survived. It is unknown at this time if Tracy will be able to return to her work. She will always need to be cautious about sources of potential illnesses (what she touches, who she is near, any potential food contamination, etc.). She will always need anti-rejection medication – currently taking about 30 different pills a day. She will likely always have some degree of difficulty speaking. She will always have a large scar on her chest.
The one thing we’re hoping is that Tracy will not always have the massive amount of medical debt associated with her ordeal - most of which has accumulated over these past two years when Tracy’s long hospitalizations, impossibly expensive but ultimately necessary, lifesaving medical procedures, intensive recovery therapies, and inability to work has simply overwhelmed her finances. Her insurance has covered what it can. We, her family, are doing what we can.
On behalf of our sister, we are now humbly asking all of you for your help as well. We’re trying to raise $100,000 to help cover just some of the costs of her surgeries, treatments, therapies, and medications.
We know it’s a large sum of money and we wouldn’t be asking if Tracy didn’t need it. Through all that Tracy has experienced, she never once lost hope or her determination to struggle through the pain towards recovery - always striving to get back to her work, students, and life.
After every incident, after every setback, after every bit of bad news, she always somehow found the strength to move forward - long after most of us would have given up.
Our sister is a fighter, an inspiration to our entire family, and a real-life Wonder Woman in our eyes. Please help us help her begin her new found life focused on appreciation and her new normal, and not burdened by the worry of a mountain of medical debt.
We greatly appreciate any gift you may be able to offer, no matter the size. Every penny we can raise to cover her medical bills goes a long way to help Tracy look forward to her future, and not back to her past. Thank you so much for any help you may be able to offer!
With deepest gratitude,
Brian, Michael, and James
In her mid thirties Tracy began having problems with her heart rhythms, without apparent cause or forewarning. The problems started "small" and, for a time, were managed by her doctors with various medications. Despite our sister’s dedication to a healthy lifestyle, proper eating, and regular exercise, as time passed, she required more extensive medical procedures and more powerful medications. As her condition deteriorated Tracy would require pacemaker surgery, then a hybrid atria fibrillation ablation surgery, and some time after, defibrillator surgery. Her heart would fail slowly and painfully over a span of 17 years. In fall 2017, after 16 years of fighting and only slowly giving ground to her condition, the deterioration of Tracy’s heart started rapidly accelerating and overpowering all of the treatment options Tracy’s medical team had devised. Just before Thanksgiving, after teaching a nighttime EMT class and while standing alone in a hallway, her heart would momentarily become too weak to pump enough blood to keep her conscious. She fell, hitting her head violently on the hard floor. Tracy suffered a skull fracture and a brain contusion as a result. Her injuries would keep her in the hospital ICU for several days through the Thanksgiving holiday. The blow to her head was so severe, it left her without most of her senses of taste and smell.
A few months later, in spring 2018, Tracy and her doctors acknowledged her heart failure had advanced to the point where they had no other options for treatment. Tracy would need a new heart. In March of 2018 she was officially placed on the heart transplant list. Shortly after, Tracy would go into the hospital for a procedure to drain fluid that had built up in her abdomen - a result of poor heart function and blood flow. The procedure was successful and afforded Tracy some temporary relief.
In June of 2018 our sister awoke late at night, dazed and disoriented. She tried to call for help but no coherent words would come out. Fortunately, a family member discovered Tracy a short time later sitting up in her bed and exhibiting the signs of an ongoing stroke. Tracy was rushed to the hospital and into emergency surgery. This was an especially terrifying time for our entire family. Because of her skull fracture and brain contusion in November, medications that would normally be used to treat stroke victims were not a viable and safe course of treatment. Tracy’s only chance was angiogram surgery. This surgery required the doctors to go through her heart and into her brain to clear the clots that had caused the stroke. Because of the weakened condition of her heart, no one knew if she would survive the night.
After five agonizing hours, Tracy and her medical team emerged from the operating room - the doctors having removed not one, but two blood clots from her brain. (We would later learn that the stroke was caused by her heart condition and the inability of her heart to properly move blood through her circulatory system.) Our sister survived both the stroke and the operation. And though she was tended to quickly, it would be some time before anyone would know the full extent of the damage done to her brain and body. At first, Tracy wasn't able to read, write, speak, or even move steadily enough to get out of her ICU hospital bed. Her gross motor functions (moving arms and limbs) returned fully after a few days but she had weeks of intense therapy. Her fine motor functions took weeks longer. Her ability to read, write, and speak were affected most severely. Though she has made great strides since her stroke, she continues to receive therapy for these affected areas.
As a further result of the stroke, though the condition of her heart continued to degrade at an advancing pace, Tracy was temporarily suspended from the heart transplant list. She wouldn't be eligible to be 'reactivated' on the list (receive a heart transplant) until the doctors were satisfied with her recovery from the stroke and surgery. After being in the hospital ICU for weeks, and working very hard in daily physical, occupational, and speech therapy sessions for months, Tracy was reactivated on the heart transplant list September 2018. In November right after Thanksgiving Tracy would once again be checked into the hospital for another heart-related procedure. At the end of that procedure Tracy was told that her body could take no more and that she would have to remain at NYU Langone hospital indefinitely until a suitable donor heart could be found. She stayed in the hospital for several weeks with IV medications helping her heart to pump.
Tracy, previously having been an avid athlete, had lost considerable weight and muscle mass and had become frighteningly thin and frail. While in the hospital, her heart became unable to pump enough blood on its own to keep Tracy alive. Tracy underwent a procedure that inserted an assistive device called an “balloon pump” into her leg and left her connected to machines to work the device on a 24 hour basis. The balloon pump left her completely bedridden. This is how she would remain until her transplant.
Finally, after all of the struggling, hoping, and waiting - at 1 am on Sunday, December 9th, we got the call. A viable matching donor heart had become available and Tracy would be heading into surgery later that afternoon.
At the age of 49, our sister’s failed heart was removed and the donor heart transplanted. Tracy’s initial recovery in the hospital was excruciatingly painful as transplant protocol prevented Tracy from having anything more than Tylenol to help manage the pain. Despite this, Tracy somehow managed through the misery of the surgery, the incision in her chest, the cut bones, and the multitude of tubes coming out of her torso. All of this was exacerbated by the doctors orders for Tracy to be out of bed and moving within 24 hours of her coming out of her post surgical sedation.
As anyone familiar with the transplant process can tell you, this story told so far is just the beginning. Tracy will have at least a year-long recovery process. In fact, a transplant isn’t even considered a success until after a full year has passed and the patient has survived. It is unknown at this time if Tracy will be able to return to her work. She will always need to be cautious about sources of potential illnesses (what she touches, who she is near, any potential food contamination, etc.). She will always need anti-rejection medication – currently taking about 30 different pills a day. She will likely always have some degree of difficulty speaking. She will always have a large scar on her chest.
The one thing we’re hoping is that Tracy will not always have the massive amount of medical debt associated with her ordeal - most of which has accumulated over these past two years when Tracy’s long hospitalizations, impossibly expensive but ultimately necessary, lifesaving medical procedures, intensive recovery therapies, and inability to work has simply overwhelmed her finances. Her insurance has covered what it can. We, her family, are doing what we can.
On behalf of our sister, we are now humbly asking all of you for your help as well. We’re trying to raise $100,000 to help cover just some of the costs of her surgeries, treatments, therapies, and medications.
We know it’s a large sum of money and we wouldn’t be asking if Tracy didn’t need it. Through all that Tracy has experienced, she never once lost hope or her determination to struggle through the pain towards recovery - always striving to get back to her work, students, and life.
After every incident, after every setback, after every bit of bad news, she always somehow found the strength to move forward - long after most of us would have given up.
Our sister is a fighter, an inspiration to our entire family, and a real-life Wonder Woman in our eyes. Please help us help her begin her new found life focused on appreciation and her new normal, and not burdened by the worry of a mountain of medical debt.
We greatly appreciate any gift you may be able to offer, no matter the size. Every penny we can raise to cover her medical bills goes a long way to help Tracy look forward to her future, and not back to her past. Thank you so much for any help you may be able to offer!
With deepest gratitude,
Brian, Michael, and James