Saving Sunshine

My name is Kim and my daughters name is Lauren. Ever since she was little, I have been calling her Sunshine, hence the name for this page. Lauren has been handed a real bad hand in life since she was younger. When Lauren was 16, we found out she had a rare Mitochondrial disease which basically affects the muscles in her body. Since she was little, she has always had a hard time being active, even walking a block. When the world shut down in 2020 for Covid, we didn’t realize that our family’s life was not only being affected by Covid, but heart failure also.

On March 7th, 2020, Lauren was diagnosed with advanced heart failure. We were told by many doctors that she would need to be put on a heart transplant list someday. Little did we know, it would be in less than 2 years. In August of 2020, she got her defibrillator implanted, this basically means that if her heart were to ever stop, it would resuscitate her until given proper care at a hospital. Life was moving along, and then March 2021, the many ER visits started and things went downhill fast. In July of 2021, Lauren then had to have a PICC line put in for Milrinone(24 hour a day IV infusion implanted in her arm) which made her have to carry bags around on a daily basis everywhere she went, which is not the typical life for a 23 year old girl. Come October, Lauren was back in hospital for kidney failure.

Finally, November Lauren headed to a hospital out of state for testing and ended up staying 31 days and got the LVAD implanted. An LVAD is a machine connected to the heart 24/7 which basically does all the work for her. Being out of state, away from family was hard, especially financially. Hotel rooms, hospital bills, gas, tolls, and medication have all been piling up. Now, she’s having problems with the LVAD four days into the new year, 2022.

Lauren is in the ICU again and we’re trying to get her listed for a heart transplant as soon as possible. There are not many options left. All we ask is that we get support, love, and anything anyone is willing to donate. Anything works. We want Lauren to get a heart as soon as possible so that she can have a second chance at a “normal” life.