$2,670 raised
·30 donations
Tammy's Heart Transplant Journey
Donation protected
Tammy Eason is a 45-year old nurse, mother of two, and grandmother. She lives in Smithfield, NC with her husband, Tony Eason, who works for a biotech company in the next town over. She also recently received the greatest gift one can get – the gift of life. Years of battling heart failure, originating from radiation damage sustained during childhood cancer treatments, took its toll, and she was placed on a heart transplant list and admitted to UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, NC.
After 41 days of exhausting intensive care, she got the call she had been waiting for and received her new donor heart. Although the surgery went well and she had a rapid initial recovery, there is a long way left to go. She spent a total of 60 days in the hospital and left with a heavy bag of medicines – immunosuppressants, anti-rejection medications, antivirals and antibiotics, and many others. Some of these medicines she will take for the rest of her life, but it’s a small price to one day be able to do the things she enjoys again, like playing with her 2-year old granddaughter, hiking in the mountains of NC, or working in the garden.
Tammy is lucky to have insurance that covers most of the cost of the transplant and hospital stay, but the family needs help to cover the mounting extra costs and bills not covered by insurance that are difficult to pay on a single salary. We are setting a goal of $10,000, but every single dollar helps. Nothing can replace the overwhelming outpouring of love, support, prayers and visits from friends and family during Tammy’s hospitalization and recovery, which helped get her and the family through a difficult and uncertain time. We want to say thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your continued kindness and generosity.
BACKGROUND
At 6 years old, Tammy Eason was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in the ribs adjacent to her heart. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and the cancer ultimately went into remission. One of the yet-unknown effects of being a cancer survivor was that the radiation therapy had damaged her heart, creating scar tissue. The effects wouldn’t become apparent until decades later, when she started having symptoms of heart failure caused by restrictive cardiomyopathy. Although apparently healthy on the outside, she started having shortness of breath, fatigue when climbing steps or walking quickly, fuzzy memory, and rapid heartbeat. Working as a hospital cardiac nurse, she was active on the floor and ultimately couldn’t continue working at the pace she wanted; so, she had to leave work and focus on her health. Several surgeries involving implanting a pacemaker, cardiac ablations, and replacement of her mitral heart valve with a mechanical one all ended up just delaying the inevitable: she would need a heart transplant.
She was placed on the transplant list and was eventually required to be admitted to the UNC cardiac ICU to control her symptoms and monitor her heart function. She and the family did not know how long they would have to wait, but her husband Tony drove an hour to the hospital every day to keep her company; her children, family and friends also visited when she was feeling well enough. She had her share of complications, including having the line that monitored her heart pressure and delivered medications replaced twice, and suffering a painful muscle bleed that left her with numbness in one of her legs. Nevertheless, it was impossible to keep her confined to the bed, and she insisted on walking whenever she could. 41 days after being admitted, she got the call that she had a donor. She only had a few hours to prepare and let everyone know, and at 4:15am on Friday May 31st, she went back to the OR for surgery. By 10:30am she was in recovery, with her new heart beating in place.
Recovery from major surgery is tough and usually requires baby steps, but being an independent spirit, she was up walking around the unit 48 hours after having her breathing tube removed. She worked hard over the next couple of weeks to show the doctors she was ready to be released from the hospital and finally regain her independence.
FINANCE
Debt, hospital bills, and miscellaneous expenses are the last thing someone should worry about while focusing on recovery, so we are asking people to chip in to help with the expenses that insurance won’t cover. The total cost of the hospital stay and surgery is estimated to be in the millions, which the family simply wouldn’t be able to afford without insurance provided through Tony’s employer. Fortunately, the actual cost, while large, is much lower than that. Here are some of the expenses a donation will help to cover:
Hospital and surgery out-of-pocket (OOP) maximum: $3,500
Copays for medications: $200/month, ongoing
Parking, food, gas for hospital stay: $30/day, 60 days = $1,800
Home health supplies
Misc. expenses for regular follow-up bloodwork, tests, biopsies, physical therapy
After 41 days of exhausting intensive care, she got the call she had been waiting for and received her new donor heart. Although the surgery went well and she had a rapid initial recovery, there is a long way left to go. She spent a total of 60 days in the hospital and left with a heavy bag of medicines – immunosuppressants, anti-rejection medications, antivirals and antibiotics, and many others. Some of these medicines she will take for the rest of her life, but it’s a small price to one day be able to do the things she enjoys again, like playing with her 2-year old granddaughter, hiking in the mountains of NC, or working in the garden.
Tammy is lucky to have insurance that covers most of the cost of the transplant and hospital stay, but the family needs help to cover the mounting extra costs and bills not covered by insurance that are difficult to pay on a single salary. We are setting a goal of $10,000, but every single dollar helps. Nothing can replace the overwhelming outpouring of love, support, prayers and visits from friends and family during Tammy’s hospitalization and recovery, which helped get her and the family through a difficult and uncertain time. We want to say thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your continued kindness and generosity.
BACKGROUND
At 6 years old, Tammy Eason was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in the ribs adjacent to her heart. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and the cancer ultimately went into remission. One of the yet-unknown effects of being a cancer survivor was that the radiation therapy had damaged her heart, creating scar tissue. The effects wouldn’t become apparent until decades later, when she started having symptoms of heart failure caused by restrictive cardiomyopathy. Although apparently healthy on the outside, she started having shortness of breath, fatigue when climbing steps or walking quickly, fuzzy memory, and rapid heartbeat. Working as a hospital cardiac nurse, she was active on the floor and ultimately couldn’t continue working at the pace she wanted; so, she had to leave work and focus on her health. Several surgeries involving implanting a pacemaker, cardiac ablations, and replacement of her mitral heart valve with a mechanical one all ended up just delaying the inevitable: she would need a heart transplant.
She was placed on the transplant list and was eventually required to be admitted to the UNC cardiac ICU to control her symptoms and monitor her heart function. She and the family did not know how long they would have to wait, but her husband Tony drove an hour to the hospital every day to keep her company; her children, family and friends also visited when she was feeling well enough. She had her share of complications, including having the line that monitored her heart pressure and delivered medications replaced twice, and suffering a painful muscle bleed that left her with numbness in one of her legs. Nevertheless, it was impossible to keep her confined to the bed, and she insisted on walking whenever she could. 41 days after being admitted, she got the call that she had a donor. She only had a few hours to prepare and let everyone know, and at 4:15am on Friday May 31st, she went back to the OR for surgery. By 10:30am she was in recovery, with her new heart beating in place.
Recovery from major surgery is tough and usually requires baby steps, but being an independent spirit, she was up walking around the unit 48 hours after having her breathing tube removed. She worked hard over the next couple of weeks to show the doctors she was ready to be released from the hospital and finally regain her independence.
FINANCE
Debt, hospital bills, and miscellaneous expenses are the last thing someone should worry about while focusing on recovery, so we are asking people to chip in to help with the expenses that insurance won’t cover. The total cost of the hospital stay and surgery is estimated to be in the millions, which the family simply wouldn’t be able to afford without insurance provided through Tony’s employer. Fortunately, the actual cost, while large, is much lower than that. Here are some of the expenses a donation will help to cover:
Hospital and surgery out-of-pocket (OOP) maximum: $3,500
Copays for medications: $200/month, ongoing
Parking, food, gas for hospital stay: $30/day, 60 days = $1,800
Home health supplies
Misc. expenses for regular follow-up bloodwork, tests, biopsies, physical therapy
Donations
Organizer
Brent Eason
Organizer
Chapel Hill, NC