Stephanie Hibblers Passing

Our beautiful Stephanie Ranae Hibbler 35, passed today on 11/15/23 at 11:35 am. Stephanie was born on May 31, 1988, in Stony Brook hospital to her parents Mark and Clare Richter. Stephanie gave birth to two miracle babies daughters Sariah age 12 and Zehara age 11 after the doctors said she wouldn’t have kids. Then Stephanie Married David, for time and all eternity on September 2nd, 2017. While Stephanie accomplished so much in her short lifespan and touched the hearts of everyone she interacted with, her greatest passion was that of a dedicated and loving mother and wife. Stephanie met her soulmate David after each experienced personal trials, and together they treasured a rare and unique understanding of what love can be in today’s world. Never taking it for granted, even for a moment, they planned a lifetime of happiness with dreams yet to be fulfilled.

 In her passing, her unimaginable love will carry on in the hearts of her husband and children, two beautiful baby girls who will honor and cherish her for their entire lives. Stephanie’s love of family and desire to be a fantastic mother has roots in her large immediate and extended family. She loved visiting her siblings, playing games, and infecting the room with her beautiful, contagious laugh. Her heart burned with a love for her family, Her ability to turn the mundane into the extraordinary was unparalleled and witnessed by family, friends, and coworkers. Her charisma, Christ-like charity, intelligence, beauty, and sass will be remembered by all who had the privilege to know her. 

 Please again anything will help with our family. This Next part you will read the words of a Daughter, a Mother and a Wife that she wrote pertaining to her health when she was looking for an organ donor. It’s a lot to read but worth the wait. Where to begin? I’m not one for putting my personal business out there on social media. And unless you are one of the VERY FEW people I confide in I’m most likely not going to tell you what’s going on in my personal life, especially when it comes to my health (my husband is definitely the exception to where I’m sure he wishes I didn’t confide so much in him! jk) On a more serious note though, most of my friends and family know I have health problems and my number one health problem being my liver. 

What some of you may not be aware of is just how sick I really am. I don’t like when people come up to me and ask me questions, I don’t like to be hugged or touched, I don’t like talking to you about what’s going on with me. I don’t want to be questioned, I want to be left alone and I want to be treated like everyone else. I don’t want sympathy. I don’t want you to be “extra gentle” with me because I might physically get hurt. I don’t want to be excluded from all the fun things. What I want is to be normal. What I want is to be a healthy wife and mother. But that’s not the life God gave me.

 God gave me this one. So as per the nurses orders, for the first time, I’m going to let my guard down and share with all of you just how sick I really am and ask for help. When I was 14 yrs old I got extremely sick and none of my dr knew why. They ran all kinds of tests on me and couldn’t figure it out. 9 months after I initially got sick the dr performed a liver biopsy on me and discovered that I had an autoimmune liver disease and my liver had already become cirrhotic. That was 16 yrs ago. Now for the sake of not wanting to write a short novel, if I say anything your unfamiliar with, please feel free to google it so you can better understand the severity in which I speak. 

I’ll spare you some of the details and just say the past 16yrs have been roller coasters rides filled with nothing but complications and pain and 3yrs ago in 2016 I was listed on NYS liver transplant list. You see my disease is not a virus, it’s not cancer, it doesn’t go away, it’s not contagious, I can’t give you it, it CANT be cured. Unfortunately, my immune system decided that it didn’t like the liver God gave me so it has slowly been killing me for 16yrs now. My reality is that tomorrow is not guaranteed. I can’t truthfully tell my husband or my children that I will be here next week. I can’t honestly tell my daughters I will be here to continue raising them, see them get married or see my grandchildren born.

 My reality is that I can’t guarantee my husband that I will grow old with him. But what I can tell you is that without a new liver I will die. I don’t know when. It could be next week, it could be in a month from now, a year, 10yrs, 30yrs....the dr doesn’t even know. But what they do know is that I need a liver and I need one before it’s too late. When you get placed on a transplant list you could get a liver from someone who is deceased and you can also have a “live donor”. The liver is one of the only organs in the human body that regenerates. 

The liver is made up of 2 lobes. When someone gets a “live donor” the drs completely remove the whole liver from the person who’s sick and take only 1 lobe from the donor. Over time the donors lobe that was taken from them grows back and the lobe that is placed in the receiver grows bigger. Oh and did I mention the liver is a VITAL organ in the human body and without one no one could live! To be a live donor you have to be a match (blood type) to the person receiving. So I have shared all of this because my drs want me to reach out to all of you and ask if you are a match to me, would you be willing to be my live donor? You see kidneys and livers are the most needed organs when it comes to transplants. 

And just because you get listed doesn’t mean you will get the organ you need in time! There’s a lot of math involved in deciding who gets an organ first. Just because I’m a young mother and wife with still a full life to live ahead of me does NOT mean I get a new liver before that 65 yr old man who’s had his family, raised his kids, experienced life with his wife. When you are listed you don’t get to the top of that list because of how much money you make or what ethnicity or gender you are. You don’t get to the top by how young or old you are. The list is not biased towards whether your disease is autoimmune related or viral or anything else of that nature. 

You get to the top by math. And sadly, like me, when the math doesn’t add up the way it should you never get to the top and than you become just another statistic of how you died while waiting on a list for something that was never going to come to you! So my only hope is that someone would selflessly become my “live donor”. What would it mean for you to be my “live donor”? Well first you have to be a match! I have O+ blood. Therefore, I can only receive an organ from someone who has O+ or A2 blood type! You must be younger than 50yrs! This is MAJOR surgery! You WILL be left with a big scar, You will be given anesthesia, you will spend DAYS in mount Sinai hospital in Manhattan along with me! 

You will be given medication, you will need to take time off from work, if you work and you will not be able to lift for a while if you have children! You will need to recover and you will need someone to help you recover! You will have pre and post op appointments with drs at mount Sinai. This WILL BE a sacrifice! You will NOT have to pay a dime towards any medical expenses! My health insurance will cover ALL of your care! The price you’ll pay will come from your body NOT your wallet! You will ALSO be giving me life! You will be giving my children a healthier mother and my husband a wife he can grow old with.

 You will be giving me something I will never be able to repay you for! You would be giving me a miracle and blessing my family in a way I could never put into words! Please understand this is not easy for me to ask of you! I understand the kind of sacrifice this would be for someone and it kills me to have to ask you to make such a sacrifice of this magnitude for me! I am humbled to have to ask of such a sacrifice from my friends and family but without a donor I will not live! If you know your blood matches mine and after much thought and prayer with God and your family, you decide this is a gift you would be willing to give please message me privately and I can share with you the steps of becoming my live donor! Thank you for taking the time to read this, I know it was long! Trust me, I wrote it and it was long for me too!