Support Mina & The Hernandez Family

The Organizer:

Hello! My name is Jenny Smith. I am one of Amsi's close friends. My husband, Tyler, and Amsi are in a men's Bible study that meets weekly together. Below is a message from Amsi, Mina's son, on the details of Mina's situation:

"Everything leading up to this point:

In early April of this year, our mother went to the doctor for a CT scan because she had been feeling discomfort in her lower abdominal area and a sense of bloating. What the CT scan showed was multiple cysts throughout her lower abdominal area that were very concerning. Though still uncertain of what it could be exactly, she had a biopsy procedure to further examine the cysts and it showed that it was stage 3C ovarian cancer. The gyno oncology team at Olive View Hospital laid out a plan for chemo treatment to see if it will prove effective against the tumors and treatment began on May 19, 2023. As more exams were done on her illness, we were informed that the cancer she has is Mullerian cancer; a rare and extremely aggressive cancer. On Friday, June 17, 2023, she had another CT scan showing that the chemo treatment has been proving ineffective against the tumors and the cancer has continued to progress.

Options moving forward:

My family and I have met with the gyno oncology team and have discussed what our options are moving forward. Because she has grown incredibly weak from the chemo treatment, the doctors are not recommending surgery. The type of surgery she would need is extremely large and too physically demanding for her body. What’s more, because the cancer has spread, they are not confident they can remove all of it during surgery, which means it would only grow back.

Since the chemo isn’t working, the doctors will not move forward with any more rounds of it. We are shifting our efforts to try another treatment called immunotherapy. In all honesty, the prospects of it are slim and we are currently seeing if her body even qualifies for this treatment. The effective rates from it are low but it is still an option that is available to us. As difficult as it is to even type this out, the other option the doctors have recommended is hospice. Because the cancer is so aggressive, it is uncertain how rapidly it will continue to progress and how soon it’ll begin to affect the rest of her body. The doctor has given her a lifetime frame of a few weeks.

How you can help:

As you can imagine, my family and I are feeling extremely heartbroken and devastated. The burden of emotions has been felt so heavily throughout this entire process. But although we are sad, we have not given up. We’ve come together as a family to support my mom through this difficult time and we also have all of our faith and trust in God. Before anything else, we would like to ask for your prayers. We believe in the power of prayer, miraculous healing, and we know that nothing is impossible for God. Coming together in prayer is one of the most powerful things and so we ask you to join us in this movement. Secondly, if you are able to and feel led, we would be so grateful for any financial donation you could make to this account. Any amount is met with gratitude and we would consider ourselves greatly blessed by it. There’s been a lot of investment in time and effort that has come at a financial cost for all of us but the biggest reason for this is the loss of income from both of my parents. They were both working full time and now my dad has quit his job to care for my mom. This is an incredibly humbling thing to ask but I feel blessed by family friends who have reached out asking for ways they can help which has led me to create this account.

Lastly, there is so much still going on right now so we please kindly ask you to wait to reach out to any one of us. While we love your kind words and prayers and encouragement, we want to stay focused on our family for the time being.

Thank you so much for reading this and for supporting us in any way possible.

Praying and believing,

Amsi

A little bit about our family:

My mom and dad have been married for 39 years. They have 3 kiddos: Monica, Edson, and Amsi. We moved to the USA on January 9, 1991, and started our new lives here in Los Angeles, CA. My siblings and I had a Christian upbringing and seeing as my parents have been pastors for almost my entire life, we were involved in ministry as well. I (Amsi) still play the piano and lead worship at my church. We’ve had a very blessed life with so many opportunities and over the years, the family just grew! Monica and her husband Andrew have 3 kids (Nathan, Sarah, and Lucas) and Edson and his wife Holly, have two boys (Benji, and baby Eli.) While most of the family lives here in Los Angeles, we make frequent trips to Fort Worth, TX to visit Edson and his family and vice versa, Edson and Holly make the trip out here as well."