Heart for Heather
Donation protected
Hello all...I would like to introduce you to my sister Heather. She is the wife of Paul Roncone and has a handsome 14 yr old son named Christopher.Heather is by far the strongest person I know. She has been dealing with heart issues since birth. She was born with a heart condition known as Tetralogy of Fallot. Heather was born with a hole in her heart and a bad pulmonary valve. Her first surgery was at 7 days old. Three more open heart surgeries were needed up to the age of 4. The surgeries closed the hole in the heart, replace pulmonary valve and performed other repairs. Her last surgery was in 1995 to replace her pulmonary valve again. For the last 10 years Heather's heart has been failing. They can no longer do repairs. She is at the point she needs a new heart.
The process to get on a transplant list has been difficult and long... Most hospitals have denied her becasue of prior surgeries and difficulties they might come across that could lessen her chance of surviving. She is allergic to Heprin which is a drug that is commonly used in transplant surgeries. She cannot have a lot of anitbodies because of all the blood transfusions she has received.
After being denied by many hospitals across the country, she has found a great hospital that has put Heather on the transplant list. She is on the transplant list at the University of Michigan Hospital. Heather has been traveling back and forth to Michigan from Lockport, NY for over a year now going through testings and evaluations hoping to be accepted. Well... they have accepted her. We do not know when a heart will become available but when it does either Heather will have to already be in the hospital or she will have to be mercy flighted to Michigan. Heather does have health insurance but it does not cover everything, especially frequent travel cost to Michigan for all medical tests, for her son and husband to visit and Mercy flight.
I am hoping to raise money to help Heather with medical expenses she currently has and any future medical expenses her and her family will incur.
The process to get on a transplant list has been difficult and long... Most hospitals have denied her becasue of prior surgeries and difficulties they might come across that could lessen her chance of surviving. She is allergic to Heprin which is a drug that is commonly used in transplant surgeries. She cannot have a lot of anitbodies because of all the blood transfusions she has received.
After being denied by many hospitals across the country, she has found a great hospital that has put Heather on the transplant list. She is on the transplant list at the University of Michigan Hospital. Heather has been traveling back and forth to Michigan from Lockport, NY for over a year now going through testings and evaluations hoping to be accepted. Well... they have accepted her. We do not know when a heart will become available but when it does either Heather will have to already be in the hospital or she will have to be mercy flighted to Michigan. Heather does have health insurance but it does not cover everything, especially frequent travel cost to Michigan for all medical tests, for her son and husband to visit and Mercy flight.
I am hoping to raise money to help Heather with medical expenses she currently has and any future medical expenses her and her family will incur.
Organizer
Erin Reibel
Organizer
Lockport, NY