Help Desiree Robinson Get a Life-Saving Heart Transplant
Donation protected
New update: Hooray Vanderbilt has a heart for Desiree. She will be having surgery this evening. Please continue to pray and to share the link as there will be additional expenses related to travel and stay for her family while they take care of her during recovery.
Updated: Desiree has been accepted on Vanderbilt’s transplant recipient list. Now let’s help her afford all the cost associated with the process, include travel and accommodations.
Hello my loves. This is a story about myself. I’m currently at my 5th heart transplant hospital with the hope of getting listed. I was sent here from Ascension Hospital in Indianapolis where I was told 30 years ago I would need a heart transplant. In 2005, my family and I moved from Indianapolis to Rockford, Illinois after the Chrysler location closed. I have postpartum cardiomyopathy since the birth of my last child. Back then, C-sections were not given lightly. I was in labor for 3 days and still had to get a C-section. After that, my journey began. I’ve always taken heart medication. I survived cancer in 2014. I was told 2 days before my son’s wedding I had cancer. We had his wedding in our backyard. I have had vocal cord surgery. I currently have a piece of silicone in my throat pushing the left side towards the right so I can speak. I traveled from Illinois to the Mayo Hospital in Rochester, MN, who would not list me. I then went to Loyola Hospital in Chicago; that did not work out. I went to Northwestern Hospital in Chicago in December 2019. I was hospitalized for 2 months, then COVID struck. I had LVAD surgery in February 2020 and was sent home with a left ventricle assist device (LVAD). I’m battery-operated . We returned home to Indianapolis. I went to IU Hospital, then on to Ascension Hospital. I still call it St. V’s. I gained a considerable amount of weight during COVID and the mental fatigue of the LVAD. I was told I weighed too much to be listed at Ascension Hospital for a heart transplant. I did not give up. I took Wegovy and lost 70 pounds. My cardiologist had suggested it to me, and it worked for me. I have high antibodies from having babies and the LVAD, which is a problem when being considered for a heart transplant. So, my awesome Dr. Mary Walsh suggested I go to Vanderbilt University. I really appreciated the referral. She was honest with her abilities, not trying to be God. So, I’m here in Nashville, Tennessee, going through the evaluation of possibly being listed. I have had 18 appointments in 4 days. Today, being Friday, is my last appointment. I will find out next Tuesday if I’m going to be listed for a heart transplant. This is my testimony I would love to share. I have a very awesome husband who has always supported me. I had a mental health therapist who was extremely helpful. We need more people to become organ donors.
Co-organizers (4)
Michelle Gibson
Organizer
Noblesville, IN
Gerald Robinson
Beneficiary
Barb Lirtzman
Co-organizer
Lesha Harris
Co-organizer
Pamela Jean Preston Brown
Co-organizer