Violet's Bilateral Lung Transplant

In the Updates, you can read the 4 1/2 year story that has brought Violet to her 2nd transplant, which happened in the night hours of September 27th, 2022. This means many more free-breathing years for Violet. It also means all the costs listed in the original post (see below) will continue. Many have helped along the way, and we feel blessed to have those people in Violet's life. Any amount you can give--no matter how small--can mean a lot when it comes from a lot of people. Sharing Violet's story with others has proven to also be incredibly helpful--it's what has allowed us to raise as much as we have over the 4 1/2 years of her first transplant. Thank you, all.

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Here's the original post from her 1st Transplant just over 4 years ago:

Violet has been fighting Cystic Fibrosis (CF), a life-long genetic disease, her entire life. Although it affects many parts of her body, her lungs have been the primary point of vulnerability...as they are for most CF patients. On April 3, 2018, she was officially added to the transplant list. Exactly one week later, she got the call from Stanford, saying they had a donor ready for her. In the early morning hours of April 12th (on her 5th wedding anniversary), she went under sedation for a bilateral (double) lung transplant that would last close to ten hours.

She's currently recovering in the ICU, where she'll spend a few days, after which she'll be moved into a less-intensive hospital room as they closely monitor her body's acceptance of the new lungs. Once she's discharged from the hospital, she'll have to relocate within thirty minutes of Stanford as they continue to monitor her progress and the health of her new lungs over the next three months.

Violet does have insurance, but it covers only a portion of the medical expenses. She will also have extensive costs for transportation, food, and lodging as she, along with her primary caregivers (mostly her mother and me), is required to live several hours from her home in Sacramento. There will also be the ongoing costs of a lifetime of doctor visits, anti-rejection drugs, and drugs to counteract the side effects of the anti-rejection medications.

Violet will require the help of all her family and friends and everyone connected to them--however slight that connection may be--to carry this enormous burden's physical, emotional, and financial weight. We’re incredibly grateful to all of those who have been a part of Violet’s life thus far and look to them and everyone they may have contact with to help her life be a long and healthy one.

As her parents and primary caregivers, we will be handling all expenses incurred as a result of this process, just as we have done Violet's entire life. We live just two hours north of Violet in Redding, California and will continue our roles as her caregivers and advocates. All funds raised through Go Fund Me and donations directly received will be stored in a bank account separate from our own and will be managed by us for anything related to her ongoing care. This will include hospitalization co-pays; doctor visits; lab work; prescription co-pays; in-patient and out-patient procedures; necessary expenses for transportation, lodging, and food over the extended stays near Stanford, and ongoing follow-ups for the rest of her life. All three of us--April, Violet, and I will have direct access to this account to pay these expenses.