Please Help Zanli Coetzee Get Her Life-Changing Surgery

My name is Mel and I am setting up this GoFundme to help support my friends Louis Coetzee and Marné Hauptfleisch whose daughter needs a complex surgery in the USA.

Zanli Coetzee is a vibrant 16 year old girl who, despite of all her challenges, is always smiling and full of joy. Her immediate dream is to just lead a normal teenage life, to be able to return to school with children her age, participate in sports again and go on social outings with her friends. She loves animals and often snuggles with the family’s two Yorkies. She is very artistic and wants to use her talent to reach great heights in the fashion industry some day. Zanli dreams of seeing her fashion designs in Milan and on runways across the globe. More than success in her field, she hopes to be in a position where she can have a positive impact in this industry that often exploits young people, creating a lack of self-worth and driving them to substance abuse and other negative influences. She would like to build up these people who others have broken down and be a light in their darkness and pain.

Zanli is suffering from Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and its many debilitating complications including Scoliosis, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Gastroparesis and Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome. She is always in some degree of pain with nausea, vomiting and exhaustion, spending 16-20 hours a day in bed. When she is feeling well enough to go out and do something, it will take her days to recover afterwards.

Her disease took a turn for the worst after vomiting multiple times a day, for the past 2 years from Gastroparesis (essentially a paralyzed stomach). She was hospitalized the end of March for malnutrition, dehydration and losing 25lb. At that time, she could not even tolerate water by mouth anymore. A feeding tube was inserted into her small intestine to bypass her stomach in order to give her nutrition via a feeding pump. It runs up to 13 hours a day. Thankfully, through her tube feedings, she has managed to gain back some weight and overall nutrition.

A recent diagnostic study indicated that she has a ligament that is pushing on the main blood and nerve supply to her stomach and abdominal organs. This is the cause of her constant abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and paralyzed stomach. It could be reversed by a complex surgery to remove the obstruction and loosen the nerves that supply her stomach. This surgery could be life changing for her and return her ability to eat and digest food normally and have a significant impact on her ability to lead a normal life.

Unfortunately, this condition is rare and not well known or even recognized amongst the medical community. The Pediatric Surgeon who is a leader in this field with significant experience in operating on Children with EDS and capable of addressing both the blood flow and the nerve compression is in Washington DC, USA. The estimated cost for this procedure is approximately $65 000 CAD.

We would greatly appreciate any donations to help make this surgery possible for Zanli and give her a chance to have a better quality of life. We long to see her thrive so that she can pursue and become all that she is meant to be.