Help for the Kiefers
Donation protected
Hello friends:
Our dear baby Vivian is in trouble. She was admitted to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford late Monday night for lethargy and swelling. Since then she's been diagnosed with pediatric pulmonary hypertension. The right side of her heart is labored and the left side isn't doing the work it's supposed to be doing. Her liver is enlarged. Her platelet count is dangerously low, as a result of which she's leaking blood out of the various IV holes in her arms. Her red blood cell count is also very low. They suspect an autoimmune disorder of some kind but they've not quite figured that out yet.
Her medical expenses are covered by my excellent insurance. What's not covered is the hotel room we're staying in--a Residence Inn in Menlo Park. The area is expensive (to say the least) and we're trying to stay together--at least in the same area. Macie's at Vivian's bedside 24/7 and Christian has all the other kids at the hotel to provide support, relief, meals, and the like. It's not ideal, but we prefer to keep our family close if we can.
This is our third time in the hospital with Vivian. She had open heart surgery at Stanford at 6 months of age (she's just shy of 2 years old now). And then she almost died of pneumonia last spring. We're down to our last credit card and that's running out fast.
This funding campaign is for expenses related to Vivian's hospital stay: food, hotel costs, and the like. We're just trying to get through this so that we can get Vivian well and can get home. Any help is appreciated. I'm sure we'll need to declare bankruptcy at some point but that doesn't help us in the immediate issue of this hotel bill.
(Note that my kids have serious allergies and my wife has a serious autoimmune disorder, which makes options like the Ronald McDonald House difficult--but I'm looking into it nonetheless.)
Best updates on Vivian are to be found on Christian's Twitter feed.
Much love to all,
Christian & Macie
Our dear baby Vivian is in trouble. She was admitted to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford late Monday night for lethargy and swelling. Since then she's been diagnosed with pediatric pulmonary hypertension. The right side of her heart is labored and the left side isn't doing the work it's supposed to be doing. Her liver is enlarged. Her platelet count is dangerously low, as a result of which she's leaking blood out of the various IV holes in her arms. Her red blood cell count is also very low. They suspect an autoimmune disorder of some kind but they've not quite figured that out yet.
Her medical expenses are covered by my excellent insurance. What's not covered is the hotel room we're staying in--a Residence Inn in Menlo Park. The area is expensive (to say the least) and we're trying to stay together--at least in the same area. Macie's at Vivian's bedside 24/7 and Christian has all the other kids at the hotel to provide support, relief, meals, and the like. It's not ideal, but we prefer to keep our family close if we can.
This is our third time in the hospital with Vivian. She had open heart surgery at Stanford at 6 months of age (she's just shy of 2 years old now). And then she almost died of pneumonia last spring. We're down to our last credit card and that's running out fast.
This funding campaign is for expenses related to Vivian's hospital stay: food, hotel costs, and the like. We're just trying to get through this so that we can get Vivian well and can get home. Any help is appreciated. I'm sure we'll need to declare bankruptcy at some point but that doesn't help us in the immediate issue of this hotel bill.
(Note that my kids have serious allergies and my wife has a serious autoimmune disorder, which makes options like the Ronald McDonald House difficult--but I'm looking into it nonetheless.)
Best updates on Vivian are to be found on Christian's Twitter feed.
Much love to all,
Christian & Macie
Organizer
Christian Kiefer
Organizer
Auburn, CA
