Rally for Erin's Liver Transplant Journey

The two hardest things in my life have been; watching someone I love suffer, aggressively declining in health in scary ways and not being able to do anything to stop it, and to have to ask people to help us stand against the wave of additional costs and medical expenses that go along with illness. At this moment my beautiful wife, Erin Verley (Pray) is fighting for life and I, Devlin Verley, am fighting against medical bankruptcy, which is threatening us from multiple directions.

Erin Verley (Pray) and I have been married since June 2008. For the first time since then, we are forced to live apart. I am still in the home we shared in a small town in Northern Wisconsin. Erin, however, has been in a hospital 2 hours from here, since just before Valentine’s day this year. We thought we were just seeing a specialist at the UW Health Transplant Hospital in Madison, WI due to her rapidly declining health. The visit had started at 7 am, at the top of each hour a different member of her new health care team visited. This lasted until 2pm when the shocking decision to admit her for a transplant evaluation was made. Erin needs a liver transplant. Right now, she has a feeding tube, and a picc line (an i.v. that starts in her arm and ends close to her heart), she has lost almost 150 lbs in about a year, and she is weak to the point of being unable to care for herself. At one point we were told, without appropriate medical care she had days to live.

In recent years Erin's health has been actively declining, Along with the need for a liver transplant, extreme weight loss, and malnutrition that she is hospitalized for now, she has also had her gallbladder removed, developed diabetes, and decreased liver functions. Erin has had inpatient visits for pancreatitis, infected kidneys and liver, diverticulitis and recurring fluid building up in her abdomen. She has also been hospitalized for pneumonia, and for complications stemming from diabetes. Added together there have been close to a dozen hospitalizations In little over three years, leading to this most recent stay in the UW Transplant Hospital. Her medical team there has informed us that she has a 3 month time-frame to get healthy enough to be eligible for a liver transplant. We're not entirely sure what happens when the time-frame expires.

Along with stress and emotional costs, each hospital stay inevitably comes with medical bills, prescriptions, lost wages, and extra expenses in gas, food, lodgings, etc. We have decent insurance through my employer of 25 years, Greenheck Fan Corp. We both worked full time, until recently when Erin was forced short-term disability from Attic Correctional Services. Though the disability benefit helps, it is definitely a reduction in our income. I currently have a part-time job and that income goes into a separate savings account. This account will be used exclusively for this fundraiser to facilitate transparency. I will continue to add my part-time income to this account to be counted with the funds which are kindly donated.

We are asking for help as we are falling behind with all the extra expenses coming our way. It is shocking how quickly one illness can transform security to a struggle to see the ends, let alone make them meet. We are not asking for help to pay our normal bills. We need assistance with all the extra medical and related costs we have and will continue to incur; gas, food, lodging, incidentals, safety rails, assistance devices and other upgrades throughout the home for Erin’s ability to function and her safety.

Any assistance you can provide would be most appreciated.