McKenna Andersen is a sweet, warm, vibrant, charismatic, beautiful young woman, with a quick wit, and a caring nature. She has always worked hard to have excellent grades, be a caring friend, and a loving daughter. She is the middle child of 5, with two older sisters and younger twin brothers, and is affectionately known by her siblings as "the golden child"! McKenna grew up dancing from the age of 3 through high school, where she excelled as a beautiful dancer, and was well known for her crazy ability to contort her legs behind her head! She is loved by everyone who comes in contact with her, and she is always a great friend. McKenna has so much to look forward to in life!



Five or six years ago McKenna began to struggle with a very challenging, and all too often, deadly disease, anorexia nervosa. So little is known about this disease, and the severity of it, that even her Dr. didn't know how to help her. Insurance doesn't recognize the intensity of it, and we seemed to slip through the cracks. She struggled through outpatient for a while, saw a psychologist for a year, and she tried to manage it, and overcome it on her own. Even a trip to the ER was unsuccessful as the Dr told her she would die within a year, and then discharged her, to the utter dismay of her mother. She has been bravely fighting this disease while her loved ones did all they could understand to help her. It has been maddening, frightening, and overwhelming!



Early December 2014, her mother noticed they were going to lose her very soon, if something drastic wasn't accomplished. She took her to the ER again on Dec 27th. She was likely minutes from death, with a heart blockage and multiple organs were shutting down. This time they kept her! She was so very fragile, but the doctors and nurses in the ER and ICU did and excellent job of saving her life, and stabilizing her for 12 days. Then the decision was made to life flight her to Denver where a world class facility for eating disorders could manage her care during the very life threatening process of refeeding. Again, McKenna had phenomenal care at The Acute ICU in Denver. She was the sickest patient they had ever seen, but they were amazing at nourishing her back to life for 6 more weeks, until she was, still fragile, but well enough to fly to another treatment place in Utah County. She has been there for 8 weeks now. It is a long, tedious, and challenging road ahead still, but she is working hard for recovery and restoring back to health. With her determined nature, we know she can overcome this ravaging disease!


So far her expenses in the last 4 months have added up to nearly $300,000.00, and we still have many months ahead. Insurance is still in dispute about the amount they are paying, but her mom is hoping to get that resolved soon. It been almost a full time job for 4 months to manage her health care, and insurance. Devastatingly, Insurance cut out way too soon, but eventually her mom managed to obtain another insurance policy, but there is a month gap in coverage. We are still in that month. We are waiting for insurance to settle on what they will pay, and in the meantime, trying to take care of her immediate needs. Her mother has worked very little since this started, and has become financially unable to help at all. Any outside help would be infinitely appreciated so we can get our beautiful, bright, and loving daughter, granddaughter, sister and friend back to living the life she was meant to live. We are determined to find a way to shed the light on Eating Disorders, and support future families in this process, so they wont have to flounder in the unknown like her mother did for so long.  Thank you all very much!

Some facts about eating disorders:

Over 20 milion women and men will suffer from a significant eating disorder during their lifetime. With proper treatment, which is extensive, about 80% of them will "recover" although for most, it is always present with them in some ways. Girls as young as 7 are starting to show signs of disordered eating. It is not something that is easily predictable who will get it, although research in the last 10 years is showing that there are a set of genes common with families with eating disorders suggesting that is is biologically based. Common personality traits are perfectionism, high achieving, pleasing personality, obsessiveness, and anxiety. The biggest obstacle to getting help is lack of education and awareness. Many feel too scared to seek help, and they die before any intervention can take place.