Support Darah and her recovery from pnemonia

On December 3, my niece Darah was admitted to the ICU with bacterial pneumonia and bronchiectasis. She (and her mother) have been at the hospital ever since. 

The 15 days she spent in the ICU were very scary for Darah and her family because Darah has another condition that also affects her lungs called pulmonary hypertension. This means that the blood pressure in her lungs is so high that it is damaging the vessels responsible for transporting blood from the heart to the lungs. This puts a lot of stress on her heart, causing damage, and makes it very difficult for her to get enough oxygen into her body.


Right now, Darah is in the IMC. Her pulmonary hypertension has progressed significantly and is going to make it harder for her to recover. The doctors are preparing her and her family for life after the hospital, which will include a lot of equipment, medication, and breathing treatment regimens to give Darah the support she needs to breathe. 



The level of care that Darah is going to need at home means that her mom who has been living in the hospital with Darah for the past 17 days, isn't going to be able to return to full-time work for months. Because she is self-employed, she doesn't have any paid time off so this means a huge loss of income for the family.


Unfortunately, Darah's healing journey won't end once she's recovered from pneumonia.  When she's healthy enough (perhaps in a few months), she'll need a heart cath so her doctors can assess how much heart damage was caused by this bout of pneumonia the very high blood pressures that she's had in her lungs.



Darah is my niece and her mom, McKenna, is my sister/best friend. If you know McKenna and her family, then you know that she and her husband DJ are absolute rocks. Darah's serious health issues right now are causing emotional and financial stress, especially considering that McKenna has her own health battles to wage (she has chronic myeloid leukemia).

So many of our friends and family members have asked how they can help. There are two big ways right now:

First and foremost, Darah's mom is requesting prayers. We are praying that their insurance approves the equipment they need and that it arrives in time for them to be discharged before Christmas. We are praying that Darah continues to heal and that her pulmonary hypertension does not continue to worsen, but that the blood pressure in her lungs begins to lower. 

Second, Darah's family is going to suffer some financial strain due to McKenna being unable to work full-time. She works for herself as a speech therapist, so it may also take some time to rebuild her client load once she is able to go back to work. So, if you are able, you can contribute here to help fill the gaps over the next few months.

I'll close by sharing a recent post that McKenna made about this journey they are on:

"Pulmonary hypertension has been this monster in our closet for her whole life and we’ve prayed it never progressed, so now that it has, 14 years of hidden fear is now all in the light. And the unexpected pneumonia just made it bigger than it already was. I believe God is doing great things in her body and while there are certain things we do know about her diagnosis, no doctor can truly give her a prognosis because God has the final say in all of this. But, the prayers of others and knowing that the Bible tells us that Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede on our behalf brings me so much peace. We are closer to getting out of here. Darah is doing really well. God is so good! A less verbose way of saying all of this would have simply been 'thank you.'"