Earlier this year, Katie Russell began experiencing medical difficulties related to heart function, ultimately receiving multiple diagnoses including cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. This illness has contributed to a massive decline in her condition, leaving her with only 10% heart function despite being only 30 years old. Her condition leaves her in need of a heart transplant and requires constant hospitalization until a donor heart can be located. She is required to be plugged into a wall and constantly monitored, only able to move around a couple of times a day for up to 20 minutes before having to return to bed and plug back into electricity. This has required her husband, Derek Russell, to move full-time into the ICU room with her to assist with constant care for the past four weeks.

The Russells both work full-time and have reached the point where Katie has no sick leave left from work and they are losing her income. Their monthly bills will be covered by Derek's salary alone, which is insufficient to maintain their home, car, and other expenses, not to mention the mounting medical bills.

The timeframe for when the Russells can expect a donor heart is complicated by a number of issues specific to Katie’s situation. This makes it impossible to predict when she is likely to receive this life-saving surgery. It is expected that under perfect conditions, she will face at least one month of full-time recovery following the surgery before a return to work is even remotely an option. This means that the best-case scenario is that they are unlikely to regain her salary before the middle of January, leaving them to face a significant gap in their ability to pay monthly bills, much less defeat the mounting medical bills they face during this time. The complications they have faced thus far would seem to indicate that it will likely be significantly later than that time.