Rosa’s Double Lung Transplant - A Hopeful Promise
Donation protected
Rosa has spent much of her life selflessly helping people because she values the power of loving connection and community. She leaves a lasting, positive impression on the people around her. Her ability to see the best in others and remain optimistic in the face of challenge makes her truly special.
In our family, she is a pillar that holds us up. She has, what seems like, a unique bond with each one of her friends and acquaintances. She’s a volunteer in her local community, a musician, an artist, a lover of the natural world, a daughter, a sister, a beloved auntie, a former Rotary World Peace Fellow, a proud graduate of Seattle University and has had a dedicated career helping others in working for the humanitarian organization, CARE USA, one of her great life callings.
Now it is time to show the strength of the community that loves her.
She and her husband, Roberto, have faced the last 3+years with courage, knowing Rosa was dying of a rare, terminal, lung disease. Even as it chipped away at her abilities and they tried to slow the disease, her life became sustained by high-levels of supplemental oxygen 24/7, while they lived in hope of the only treatment possible – A double lung transplant.
Now, after years of waiting for a donor match, Wednesday, July 17th, Rosa became the gracious recipient of two, beautiful, healthy lungs – a hopeful promise for more life –thanks to a successful transplant surgery and a generous, heroic donor.
We are calling on Rosa and Roberto’s community near and far and whomever else would like to support them on this journey. A successful first year following transplant is crucial to extending Rosa’s long, beautiful life, and we don’t want her or Roberto to worry about a thing this year other than her well-being.
The extraordinary gift of lungs comes with great responsibility and an immense amount of work in order to adjust to life’s evolving new normal. Recovery from a double lung transplant is not linear, and it is not easy. It is slow, yet active, and in partnership with a medical team that wants to ensure her body does not reject the new organ.
Rosa has said that this is the most challenging thing she has ever done – and she has lived a lot of life – but we know how strong she is in heart, mind and spirit. If her job before transplant was self-care in order to survive until a match came along, her job this year is to focus completely on creating a life that supports her recovery. This includes the most basic building blocks like time for her new lungs to adapt to her body, healing of tissue, learning to walk stably again by rebuilding all the muscle that has atrophiedso she can actually use her new lungs to their capacity, adapting to unique nutrition and medication requirements, frequent medical appointments, plenty of rest, responding to unforeseen bumps that can arise, participating in pulmonary rehabilitation, physical therapy and occupational therapy, among other needs, and removing unnecessary stressors.
Over a minimum of the next 3 months, Rosa also has significant constraints on how she uses her upper-body. She needs 24-hour caregiver presence, and Roberto is taking on this role via family medical leave.
In this critical time many people have offered to help but the complexities of recovering can limit how others are directly involved. Rosa has virtually no immune system in the initial stages, which means infection risk is high. Therefore, the typical ways friends/family aid in recovery won’t be possible for a while.
We want Rosa to feel a web of encouragement, solidarity and joy at this time, which is why we’ve created this gofundme. Not only will it assist with expected and unexpected financial expenses that arise, it will provide ease of mind, positivity and be a platform for those that care about her to show their love and support. We know that healing is so much more than resources, so whether you share uplifting messages or donate, your contributions will collectively make her feel held during this vital time of recovery, adaptation and healing. This is about what we can do as a collective, together, to support her and show that we as a community are all rooting for her.
Rosa vows her lifetime ahead – which we want to be steady and long – to be an excellent steward of her new lungs so as to honor her donor, a person that chose selflessly to give the gift of life. Receiving this gift is the ultimate and most humbling responsibility. Thank you for supporting her in living out her vow and sharing it with others who want to be part of this hopeful promise as well.
Thank you for your offering and for being part of Team Rosie!
In our family, she is a pillar that holds us up. She has, what seems like, a unique bond with each one of her friends and acquaintances. She’s a volunteer in her local community, a musician, an artist, a lover of the natural world, a daughter, a sister, a beloved auntie, a former Rotary World Peace Fellow, a proud graduate of Seattle University and has had a dedicated career helping others in working for the humanitarian organization, CARE USA, one of her great life callings.
Now it is time to show the strength of the community that loves her.
She and her husband, Roberto, have faced the last 3+years with courage, knowing Rosa was dying of a rare, terminal, lung disease. Even as it chipped away at her abilities and they tried to slow the disease, her life became sustained by high-levels of supplemental oxygen 24/7, while they lived in hope of the only treatment possible – A double lung transplant.
Now, after years of waiting for a donor match, Wednesday, July 17th, Rosa became the gracious recipient of two, beautiful, healthy lungs – a hopeful promise for more life –thanks to a successful transplant surgery and a generous, heroic donor.
We are calling on Rosa and Roberto’s community near and far and whomever else would like to support them on this journey. A successful first year following transplant is crucial to extending Rosa’s long, beautiful life, and we don’t want her or Roberto to worry about a thing this year other than her well-being.
The extraordinary gift of lungs comes with great responsibility and an immense amount of work in order to adjust to life’s evolving new normal. Recovery from a double lung transplant is not linear, and it is not easy. It is slow, yet active, and in partnership with a medical team that wants to ensure her body does not reject the new organ.
Rosa has said that this is the most challenging thing she has ever done – and she has lived a lot of life – but we know how strong she is in heart, mind and spirit. If her job before transplant was self-care in order to survive until a match came along, her job this year is to focus completely on creating a life that supports her recovery. This includes the most basic building blocks like time for her new lungs to adapt to her body, healing of tissue, learning to walk stably again by rebuilding all the muscle that has atrophiedso she can actually use her new lungs to their capacity, adapting to unique nutrition and medication requirements, frequent medical appointments, plenty of rest, responding to unforeseen bumps that can arise, participating in pulmonary rehabilitation, physical therapy and occupational therapy, among other needs, and removing unnecessary stressors.
Over a minimum of the next 3 months, Rosa also has significant constraints on how she uses her upper-body. She needs 24-hour caregiver presence, and Roberto is taking on this role via family medical leave.
In this critical time many people have offered to help but the complexities of recovering can limit how others are directly involved. Rosa has virtually no immune system in the initial stages, which means infection risk is high. Therefore, the typical ways friends/family aid in recovery won’t be possible for a while.
We want Rosa to feel a web of encouragement, solidarity and joy at this time, which is why we’ve created this gofundme. Not only will it assist with expected and unexpected financial expenses that arise, it will provide ease of mind, positivity and be a platform for those that care about her to show their love and support. We know that healing is so much more than resources, so whether you share uplifting messages or donate, your contributions will collectively make her feel held during this vital time of recovery, adaptation and healing. This is about what we can do as a collective, together, to support her and show that we as a community are all rooting for her.
Rosa vows her lifetime ahead – which we want to be steady and long – to be an excellent steward of her new lungs so as to honor her donor, a person that chose selflessly to give the gift of life. Receiving this gift is the ultimate and most humbling responsibility. Thank you for supporting her in living out her vow and sharing it with others who want to be part of this hopeful promise as well.
Thank you for your offering and for being part of Team Rosie!
Organizer and beneficiary
Kate Therrell
Organizer
Edmonds, WA
Rosa Singer
Beneficiary
