Support Gillian & Shannon

Hi, my name is Katrina and I am fundraising for Gillian. Here is a little about Gillian's story.

“Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain…”

Gillian started having seizures when she was 18 months old, and, after several months, was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called Shone’s Syndrome. Gillian’s first heart surgery was at age two. That began the routine of cardiac cath followed by ‘big surgery’, with lots of trips to San Francisco in between. This is Gillian’s life. This is what she knows.

Her routine was upended on January 4th of this year when she went into kidney failure due to a drastic prescribed medication change. Then on Valentine’s day she had trouble breathing and spent 12 days in the hospital to discover that her mechanical mitral valve is malfunctioning.

Gillian had to have the riskiest surgery of her life in June. During this open heart surgery they had to replace her current mechanical mitral valve as well as replace her bicuspid aortic valve. Why June? In the midst of all of these recent set backs Gillian has found joy in teaching and wanted to finish out the school year before the next ‘big surgery’.

Gillian was in Stanford Hospital for 26 days recovering from her valve replacements and having a permanent pacemaker put in.

She was home less than a week when she began having seizures due to a brain bleed. At that time she was airlifted back to Stanford Hospital where she spent the next 16 days getting the bleed and seizures under control.

These surgeries have given Gillian a new life, however she won't be able to work for at least a year due to the intensity of them. Also, during this time, and even though her insurance covered her medical care, there were many other costs that she and her mother, Shannon, had to pay (driving from Petaluma to Stanford, more than they originally thought, parking, food while in the hospital, and more).

We are choosing to focus on all the many reasons to be thankful in this process. There are so many things to be thankful for!