Tara Needs Our Help and Prayers

Hi everyone I am Linelle DeNaples, friend of Ruth & Tara Graci. If anyone knows both of them, you know that asking for help does not come easily. However, the time has come where help and support from our community of family, friends, co-workers and kind-hearted strangers to help Tara continue to fight is needed.

Over the last several months, Tara's health has deteriorated significantly. The decline in her health happened so quickly, it’s hard to fully comprehend. She has been rushed numerous times to hospitals and has spent more time in a hospital than at home. She is currently admitted at the University of Pennsylvania due to her encephalopathy related to liver failure. She will remain as an inpatient until she has a liver transplant due to her condition continuing to decline. On Thanksgiving night they were made aware that they possibly had a liver for her with only hours to be told it was not viable. She is very weak and the transplant team is considering a feeding tube to help with nutrition to make her stronger when the transplant actually happens.

While they are fortunate that insurance will cover a lot of this cost, there is still a huge financial burden for their family that they will face in the coming months. Due to her critical illness, Tara is no longer able to work - hopefully temporary. In addition to being responsible for anything not covered by insurance, there will also be post-transplant therapies, immunosuppressants and other expensive medications that she will take for the rest of her life. Ruth (Tara's mother) whom Tara lives with has also been out of work. Ruth has been preparing to make modifications to their home to better suit her current and future mobility needs.

Tara has the biggest, most genuine heart. She is passionate about her career and loves to help anyone which is why she chose the path of being a social worker.

On behalf of the Graci's, I am sincerely grateful for any assistance you can provide to help them. And it goes without saying the power of prayer is needed.

Let’s show Tara the suppost she deserves!