Help Grant Joe McGuigan's Final Wishes & Burial

Joe McGuigan is my great-nephew.  He struggled long and hard to live a happy normal life, despite having congenital heart disease.  He had a heart transplant on April 21, 2017.  Last November, he went into rejection.  He was on a steady decline since and passed away this morning at 4:10 am.  His family has been emotionally, physically and financially  devastated by this.  

I am starting this to help his life partner Jessica Ghanem McGuigan, fulfill his final wishes and lay him to rest with peace and dignity.  

Please help.


Below are his Jess's own words.

Joe was a born warrior. On his first day in this world,  he had to endure what most of us would never in a lifetime. A life threatening heart surgery was needed immediately.  He had his first heart catherization before he was even 24 hours old.  He was dealt a bad hand, yet still played to win each and every day. He had 5 open heart surgeries through just 13 years old.

When Joe was just 32, after having two amazing children Joey and Gia  with his life partner Jessica, he was told the devastating news of needing a heart transplant. His family, Jessica and their kids were full of heart ache and fear. Joe's case was so rare that the doctors didn’t know if he would make it through a transplant operation, never mind find a compatible match.

Being that amazing fighter he was, he never backed down or gave up. He pulled through and was given the gift of life through a selfless donor and an amazing act of God. His family's dreams came true!  They were thinking they could begin their next journey of happiness.  After only 8 months later he was already back to work and feeling better than he had his whole life! One of the heart transplant doctors actually wrote an article about him because  his was such a rare and amazing story.

Fast forward a year and half post transplant, being the hard worker he was, leaving for work very early one morning, 4 am, to go to NYC forgot his rejection medication. This was his first time ever missing his medication; therefore, he contacted his transplant team immediately and followed their directions. Unfortunately, a month later, he and his family found out that he was in rejection. Joe fought with everything he had again and thought he would be okay.

From January to March though, his EF (percentage his heart is functioning) had dropped from normal range (65%) all the way to 20%. His team knew it was dropping and waited until March to tell him there was nothing they could do to fix his new heart, informing his loved ones that he would need another transplant. Broken down and fearful again, he still fought. They told him he could have 3-6 months left. They denied him to be put back on the list there because of having such an extremely high amount of antibodies. Joe continued to begin each and every day with a positive determined attitude as he'd always had.

With the news of being told he only had a very short time left Joe, Jessica and their children, Joey and Gia, they took a "wish list" trip to Florida to make the best memories possible together. Making those memories and returning home Joe, yet again fell ill. He was rushed yet again into University of Penn's ICU unit, he was in admitted immediately and found out he was in complete kidney failure, congestive heart failure, and rejection. This was the most ill he'd been thus far. He was kept in ICU for 2 weeks, getting 24 hr. dialysis for days to remove the immense fluid build up.   He was also given a regimen of rejection treatment.
He was finally moved out of ICU and continuedd to receive chemotherapy treatment once a week for 4 weeks. He was finally released late Friday evening July 3,  with his family waiting for hours upon hours due to more delays and confusions with his chemo treatment.

Sunday Joe became weak and was in excruciating back pain. Monday was his follow up back at University of Penn. Yet again, there were more complications, as no labs were taken and the only thing ordered was a CAT scan with contrast which insurance denied. Hours afterwards and no resolution, no medication, no labs performed and thus nothing done, Jessica , Joe and the kids left in tears. Tuesday morning, after again a sleepless, excruciating night, Jessica rushed Joe to Newark Beth Israel Hospital. He was immediately diagnosed as being in full kidney failure, acisidosis and  septic , as his pic line was not changed in the time allotted and more. As all the medical staff working on him tried to rush to his aide, he coded twice. After reaching ICU and needing immediate 24 hr dialysis to save his life, this wasn't able to be done due to his blood clotting each time as they made attempt after attempt! It was all to no prevail; Joe succumbed to the battle for his life as Jessica and family held his hand as he took his last breath.

As I'm sure anyone can imagine, this has devastated his loving family, hoping for nothing more than a normal, healthy life together. As these dreams are no longer possible, the family would like to lay Joe to rest in the most loving, heartfelt way possible. Please keep this heartbroken family - Jessica, Joey and Gia - in your thoughts and prayers as they try to face the somber path ahead.





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