Help Olivia Afford Life-Saving Surgery

UPDATE - 5/12/2025:

Good afternoon, everyone - MAJOR UPDATE!

First of all - thank you to everyone who has donated recently, and for all of the words of love and kindness you have been sharing with us. Olivia and her family appreciate you and all of your help over the past 6 months.

Olivia's family had a chance to speak with a financial aid representative at UW-Health earlier today, and found out that there have been some massive changes to their account since last month. Because of further updates from financial aid, the majority of Olivia's hospital and surgery bills have been covered by the UW-Health System! The only bills left to cover through UW-Health include post-op appointments from early 2025, when the family's health insurance status changed.

Because of this, we have made some big updates to our funding goal, which you will find broken down in the table below:



Our new goal is $20k - the last $2,000 of which will go towards the team involved with "Run 4 Olivia." This event brought a lot of new attention to our GoFundMe campaign, and Olivia's family would like to try to reimburse the team for their time and travel expenses, if possible.

Please continue to share and donate if you're able to - we are getting so close to hitting our funding goal! Again, thank you so much to everyone who has helped us out so far - it means the world to us!

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UPDATE - 4/1/2025:

Thank you so much to everyone who has been following Olivia's medical journey. We are happy to report that Olivia's surgery was successful, her recovery has gone well, and she's starting to return to work!

All of Olivia's financial aid has cleared, but the amount her family now owes in medical debt is still very high. The first round of fundraising was extremely helpful for Olivia and her family in getting through her recovery period, but now they face the daunting hurdle of paying off the remainder of her medical debt.

Below you will find an updated list of expenses related to Olivia's condition, surgeries and hospital stay, and post-surgery recovery period. Items highlighted in yellow have already been paid-off using GoFundMe donations - everything else is still outstanding.

Please continue sharing this campaign, and please consider donating if you're able to!

Edit - 4/1 @ 6:00pm:

Olivia's brother-in-law, Benjamin Jones, will be coming to Wisconsin in late April for a charity run. The donations raised from this run will go towards Olivia's medical expenses. Because of this, we have added $2,000 on to the goal amount in order to reimburse Ben's travel expenses, so long as we're able to meet our donation goal first. We'll post more updates and details about this event soon!

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ORIGINAL POST:

Help Olivia pay for life-saving cranial surgery by donating today!

In late August 2024, Olivia began experiencing an odd symptom - clear, thin liquid suddenly began dripping from her right nostril. Most physical activity, especially leaning or bending forward, would result in this drainage at a rate that was immediately alarming. After multiple doctor visits, the drainage was finally identified as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and Olivia was diagnosed with a cranial CSF leak. Subsequent imaging revealed a weakened area in Olivia's skull, and a hole going through her brain lining, skull, and nasal tissue.

Olivia's surgery date is currently scheduled for November 26th, 2024 with a surgery team specializing in cranial CSF leak repair. Afterwards, she will need to spend 2-5 days in the hospital under observation, and up to 6 weeks out of work for recovery. Without this surgery, Olivia's risk for bacterial meningitis, stroke, brain sagging, and other life-threatening brain-related conditions rise significantly.

Olivia has already had to miss a lot of work days in the lead-up to surgery. She is currently uninsured and doctor bills are already quickly stacking up. Without help from friends, family, and the community, her family may be unable to afford this life-saving surgery.

Please consider donating whatever you can to help Olivia today!