Support Tara's Heart Transplant Journey

As many of you may know, Tara was born with a degenerative heart disease called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. This causes the heart muscle to become too large, making it progressively weaker over time and harder for the heart to properly support all of the other organs, tissues and cells in the body limiting the amount of blood and oxygen being pumped throughout the body. She has had an implanted pacemaker/defibrillator since she was 15 years old to support and regulate her heart beat.

About 3 years ago, Tara started experiencing blood clots in her legs resulting in excruciating pain and inability to walk or feel the floor beneath her feet. This was followed by races to the ER and emergency surgeries. This again happened in September leaving her tied up in the hospital CVICU receiving a treatment that kept her bound to her hospital bed unable to move, stretch or sit up for 5 days. Successfully, her medical team got her cleared out and back on her feet. These episodes have left her needing to take daily Blood Thinners to keep her circulation moving smoothly.

Next, Tara started experiencing intense and painful digestive issues which were caused by multiple factors. The many surgeries the past several years added up an over use of antibiotics and her microbiome became severely unbalanced. All of her good bacterias were destroyed leaving her susceptible to a pathogen called c.diff and colitis, causing painful bloating and inflammation pushing up on her heart, making her weak heart even weaker. Then the inflammation would push all the way up thru the heart, lungs, neck and into her head causing pressure, light headedness, dizziness and brain fog. As time went on, this became worse and worse until Tara's quality of life was dwindled down to nearly nothing... making it a challenge to do even the simplest of daily life tasks.

Tara sought out help from some of the best specialists in Palm Beach County, but it would take forever to get appointments, even longer for testing and then waiting on results. Every specialist could only help her with their particular organ. She went from Cardiologist to a Hematologist to a Nephrologist and then finally to a Gastroenterologist. Frustratingly enough, with so many on board, no one could come together to discuss everything at once and come up with a plan or to put all the pieces together.

After years of her parents, Galen & Diane Hauck, and brother, Jordan, encouraging her to visit the Mayo Clinic, she finally surrendered and her girlfriend, Laura, drove from Orlando to take Tara to Jacksonville, Florida. Upon arrival at the Mayo Hospital ER on May the 5th, they immediately began treatment on the c.diff, which is now thankfully all cleared up and in the meantime ran a myriad of tests for the heart.

They concluded the heart is just too weak to support her anymore. She was transferred to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida where she is currently on life support with a balloon pump installed in her right aorta...this assists her heart in supporting the rest of her organs while she is being worked up and prepared for a heart transplant.

The have her stabilized, balanced and thriving...she's got herself a great little routine while she waits for the biggest gift she could receive on this life journey.

There is a rating system they go by for transplant patients of 1-10. 10 being the least in need and 1 being the most in need. Tara is rated a category 2 and because of her small size, this makes her a great candidate for this procedure. The wait as to how long she will have to stand by and be supported by life support in the CVICU is unknown. But they believe with everything considered, she won't have to wait too long.

Unfortunately, this has her unable to work for the next several months. The cost of a heart transplant is over one million dollars. She does have health insurance but that only covers a portion of the costs, which leaves her receiving a mailbox full of endless hospital bills and unable to support herself as she normally can. After the surgery she will be on many medications to keep her protected so her body can stay in alignment and acceptance of this new heart, as well as anti-rejection medicines which are known to significantly deplete the immune system. The funding goal is what her father, Galen, needed for his heart transplant at Tara's age.

It has been quite a lot to process and accept for her, but she has surrendered and is in a really strong place mentally, feeling immense gratitude for this privilege and gift and a renewed chance at life.

Asking for financial help is something that doesn't come easy for Tara...she has always been very independent and never wants to be a burden upon anyone but she realizes that she has the most incredibly compassionate support system one could imagine and that so many truly, generously and selflessly want to help her.

Let's be that support system Tara needs right now and help her to not have the added stresses of the financial burden during this long and fragile battle for her sweet little life that she is on.