EMERGENCY HEART AND LUNG TRANSPLANT AFTERCARE

Hi, my name is Dezi and I am here to ask for your help. Many of you love Gina and know what has been going on but things have bumped up. The medical costs are surmounting, and the aftercare is specific and costly! Also, Gina's son is missing work to drive back and forth two hours to Stanford. Times are tough for many people, but this lady needs us.

Anything helps!

UPDATE!!

Yesterday Gina was told that she now needs a heart transplant in addition to the double lung she was trying to get listed for. She was listed yesterday and miraculously at 7:30 am her son texted to say they found a perfect match and surgery is today at 12pm!

This is amazing! However, the aftercare plans are not in place. She still does not have the needed four-month caregiver and we are out of time! This fund is to help pay for this care and all donations will go to Gina & Christian to manage her care.

Below is the update just as of a few days ago to get you all caught up......

It has been an emotional roller coaster for the past three months. Not that it wasn’t before. Gina was diagnosed with Lupus at the age of 19. It’s been a never-ending roller coaster.

This is different.

This is the first time she almost died in the hospital…. Once on the table during surgery. And again, recently when she had to go back in due to Covid and C-DIFF

She spent 47 days in Stanford for what was supposed to be 5 days of testing. She had been told that one of the secondary auto-immune diseases, Scleroderma in her lungs, had progressed to the need for a double lung transplant. The lining of her lungs had thickened to the point of no return. All the oxygen in with world wasn’t going to help, which she has consistently been on for roughly 2 years at this point. She has at least 6 major, additional diagnosis due to the Lupus. One is heart disease. The heart is overcompensating due to the strain to pump oxygen to the body. She wears a pump that circulates medicine in her heart. It has a cartridge she has to prep, and she can’t remove it so showering, clothing etc. is difficult. Plus, heavy oxygen tanks to carry around. Life fucking sucks basically. No way around it

Yet she managed to take care of her mother who passed of brain Cancer in Jan. She is the toughest woman I have ever met.

So, she goes in for 5 days of testing to qualify for a double lung transplant and ends up staying for 47 days. Liver biopsy, gallbladder issues, a stroke, almost died on the table during emergency surgery etc.

She finally gets out, gets listed, only to go back in not even two weeks later. This time around her son is called in to make life decisions. She says she wants to live so the put her on an ECMO machine (look it up- too much to describe) and she battles out the virus and infection.

She somehow now is off the feeding tube and in a bed the tilts her up to a standing position. She has no strength and is down to 98 lbs. if you know Gina… that’s tiny. She is now doing therapy exercise to gain some strength and will not be put back on the transplant list until she gains some weight.

This woman has battled this disease for most her adult life. She put herself through a Master’s degree in Social Work as a single mom, going into the some of the roughest areas in Sacramento to sadly separate families via CPS. She also worked for Ventura County Social Services for 5 years until her health took over. Gina has drove up and down the state to support her punk family, which is very important to her. Honestly so much more.

So, when this transplant happens, she needs someone to be by her side for a good 4 months. I don’t know how this is going to happen but baby steps, I guess. If you have any resources, please share. She is at the point of needing more than words. Her son Christian has a career and a young family, and her father is in his 70’s. They are doing as much as they can.