Help Ketty continue being a Warrior

My name is Jessica and I am fundraising for my sister Ketty Ann Depina. If you know me, you know that she is my world and we have a super special bond. It got even stronger when I almost lost her 12 years ago. Now Ketty is fighting fo her life again, her husband and her need our help to be able to keep fighting.

12 years ago we were on vacation in Dominican Republic when all our lives changed forever. Healthy, young Ketty had a seizure that put her into cardiac arrest. She was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital where are they performed every test known to man and discharged her. She went home had a grand mal seizure and had to be rushed to Baptist Hospital. A very long story short she spent three months in a coma having psychotic episodes, at 20 had an ovary removed cause it had a teratoma, chemo, plasmapheresis, went to rehab, learned to walk and feed herself again. She was diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (look it up, it’s so rare). She fought and won, graduated FIU with a bachelor in Education and is now one amazing teacher.

In January 2022 we went back into fight mode, a teratoma had grown back in her other ovary. She was recently engaged and hopeful of forming a family. So her surgeon decided that he would leave a piece of her ovary so that she could harvest eggs. This time it was simple and she won again and recovered quickly.

Now May 2022, I had to take her to the emergency room because her belly was so distended and she could hardly breathe. After scans and ultrasounds we heard what we thought could be the worst news, the teratoma was back and was huge. She also had fluid around her right lung, a belly full of fluid. She needed immediate surgery, what we thought would be simple again. At 7:55pm May 5, we received the worst news we could have ever imagined. Ketty didn’t have just a teratoma, she had CANCER everywhere in her abdomen (liver, stomach, intestines cover, etc). Ketty was staying intubated because she had lost too much blood and was going to ICU. She would need to recover and then start on an aggressive chemo regimen and hopefully have another surgery remove remaining tumors. She has a long road ahead of her, this will definitely be the biggest fight of her life.

Ketty and her husband need financial help. To help with medical bills, chemo, survive day to day while Ketty cannot return to work, and possibly travel to a cancer center that will be able to treat her.

Please help in any way you can. Ketty is a warrior and she will also win this fight.