Jay’s Journey to a New Heart & Liver

My name is Jen, and we’re setting this up for my little brother who is finally in the running for a new heart!!!! However, it’s turned into a heart and liver transplant. There’s still a few final hoops to jump through but in a perfect world he will be listed by January 

We are raising money for his medical expenses and regular bills for him and my mom, as he will be in an Omaha hospital for a minimum, perfect case scenario, of 3 months where he must have a caregiver with him since he’s out of state. So, neither will be able to work in that time.

Jays Story from my mom who knows it best.

Jay was born with half a heart. The right side of his heart never developed properly. He had numerous heart surgeries and catheters at UICH Stead children’s hospital over the years. He developed a condition called PLE…protein losing enteropathy. This was caused by the very surgeries that saved his life as a young child. He was listed for a heart transplant for a quite a few years at UICH but the wasn’t quite sick enough to receive his gift. Now as an adult, he has gotten too sick for Iowa City to treat him. He now needs a liver, due to long lasting heart failure and UICH cannot handle his difficult issues so they sent him to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Drs there are hopeful they can get him admitted there over the winter and potentially keep him there until he receives his gifts of life. This could mean weeks or months of staying in the hospital and due to him being out of state he needs a caregiver with him full time. This benefit will hopefully help him and his family be able to pay for trips back and forth along with making rent payments and everyday bills while they’re off work to be with Jay. Please feel free to follow his page on Facebook called Jay’s Journey….New Beginnings