Raising for Rachel: Help save her broken heart

"When the path seems long and hard, my sister takes my hand and reminds me that I don't ever have to walk it alone.

Sister, I may not be able to solve all your problems, but I promise you won't have to face them alone."

Our sister Rachel was born with Transposition of the Great Arteries (in short a backward heart). She has fought her 37 years of life to not only survive but to prove the numerous doctors with negative prognoses wrong. Rachel is on her 3rd Pacemaker and Defibulator. During the pandemic and after several lengthy hospital stays, her cardiology team determined she was in full heart failure and would need a heart transplant. On July 9th, 2021, Rachel was placed on the heart transplant list and we began the official journey to help save her broken heart.

While headed to a regular doctor's appointment on Tuesday July 5th, 2022 Rachel had a stroke on the left side of her brain. Doctors were unable to fully remove the clot at the time of surgery. This resulted in a brain bleed and damage to part of her brain causing Broca's Aphasia. Less than 48 hours later, Rachel had a 2nd stroke on the opposite right side of the brain. Thankfully, doctors were able to remove the clot this time, but it caused a delay in recovery from the first stroke and added major stress to the heart and body.

Because of the recent strokes, Rachel's transplant status has been temporarily paused, and she cannot receive a heart until she fully recovers from this. This is only the most recent of issues that Rachel has experienced in the last month, and she has spent most of her time in the hospital. Rachel is a single mother with an 8-year-old son JW, who misses his Mommy terribly. He is her world and she is his. We genuinely believe her heart beats only for JW.

We knew her transplant road would be a rocky one but we never imagined the events that would occur while we waited. Due to many unknown variables including insurance coverage, the necessary finances are still unclear. On top of the added travel expenses, our family is accruing unimaginable hospital debt very quickly before we even get to the transplant portion. We have been given an estimated $100,000 bill for the transplant but we don't have the bills yet for the current stay and the ones from the last three trips this month are just starting to arrive.

We are asking for support from anyone willing to open your heart to help fix her broken heart.

All money donated by our family, friends, and community will go directly to Rachel's medical bills and support for her son. If for any reason, Rachel is blessed enough to receive more than her debt accrued, she will be donating the remaining amount to the American Heart Association which funds cardiovascular medical research.

We will update everyone with the financial need as we receive exact bills AND as Rachel navigates this difficult battle.