NEW UPDATE

Dear readers,

This isn’t the update I was hoping to write. It is with the heaviest of hearts that Fobazi’s family have announced her passing.

True to form, Fobazi defied medical expectations right until the very end. Although she has passed, she still recovered from elements of her illness that we were told she never would, and so I would be lying if I said I didn’t think that, one day, she would be writing her own update on this page.

Fobazi passed away in the Intensive Care Unit, and I want readers to know that she was surrounded by love until the very end. In fact, Fobazi’s wife Elena never left her side. Ever. She slept in a chair by Fobazi’s hospital bed for months and months because she didn’t want Fobazi to be alone, and to make sure she was present to advocate for her.

At a point when my little baby reached an age to be left with her dad, I did manage to fly out to Chicago to see Fobazi for one final time before she passed, and every single nurse, doctor, chaplain, and social worker I met during my stay said that they would want someone like Elena to be their partner. The way they held each other through thick and thin is something we should all aspire to in our lifetimes. Fobazi and Elena found a rare love with each other, and while many of you know them through their academic accolades, I think you should know about the depth of that love, too.

So many of you are kindly asking what you can do to help, and my ask of you right now is to please, if you can, contribute to the GoFundMe. Alongside her grief at losing both her wife and her mother within the past couple of months, Elena is contending with hospital bills, funeral and burial costs, a forthcoming Celebration of Life event for Fobazi, relocation fees, Chloe’s care, and lots of other pricey results of this situation. I know that it would tremendously ease Elena’s stress if she had some financial help.

Thank you to everyone who has sent messages of support, shared the GoFundMe, and kept Fobazi, Elena, and their families in their thoughts and prayers over the past few months.

Sending all my love, and thanking you with all my heart once again,

Ysabel

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OLD INFORMATION/CONTEXT

Hello all, my name is Ysabel and I’m fundraising for my friends Fobazi and Elena as they navigate Fobazi’s road to recovery. Fobazi is currently in the ICU, and will soon undergo lifesaving kidney and liver transplants.

Fobazi has sickle cell anemia, a genetic blood disorder that causes severe pain and that impacts all organs. The last few years she has been on dialysis due to kidney failure. During a recent hospitalization, doctors discovered that her liver was also failing. Fobazi now needs an emergency combination kidney/liver transplant.

Unfortunately, as the doctors prepared for the surgery, Fobazi began having multiple seizures, and the surgery had to be delayed to get them under control. Fobazi is now in a medically induced coma in the ICU being treated with multiple seizure medications. Thankfully, she has now been seizure-free for several days, and the doctors plan to go forward with the transplant when she wakes up and is alert and stable enough for surgery.

The transplant recovery is a long and involved process that will demand a significant amount of time and energy from Fobazi and her wife, Elena. I’m raising money - to be paid directly to them - to help with the associated costs, including:

If you know Fobazi personally, or even know of her important work in libraries, you know she is a fighter. She and Elena have been persisting for years through these health struggles, and supporting them through this time will help them to focus on what really matters.

Please give what you can, and share Fobazi’s story, to help her on her road to recovery.