Family with ongoing Medical Crisis
Megan is a daughter, wife, sister, friend, aunt and furry pup mama.
She was born with a rare liver disease, Biliary Atresia. She underwent a liver transplant at just 6 months old, but now she is requiring another liver transplant after 31 years with this liver. She has End Stage Liver Disease, and frequent hospital stays have been par for the course.
Her ongoing medical journey has left her financially burdened, and she can really use your help, if you feel so inclined.
To learn more about Megan and her beautiful journey, please read her story provided on this page. Thank you for your time!
Story:
Megan is a 31 year old young woman who has had quite the tumultuous relationship with her health. Her health problems started March 8, 1993, the very day she was born. Megan had a rare birth defect called biliary atresia, a potentially lethal condition where there are no functioning bile ducts in the liver.
Our journey began at Lutheran General Hospital where a Kasai surgical procedure was performed. A Kasai involves removing blocked bile ducts and the gallbladder, then replacing them with a section of the small intestine. The procedure is meant to restore bile flow and decelerate damage to the liver.
Unfortunately, the procedure was a failure. Megan was still lethally ill, but there was still hope. There was a new procedure in the medical world that could save her life.
Megan was a candidate to receive an entirely new liver via a transplant, through a living donor. While her mother Sherrie had stepped up to be her donor, scar tissue from a prior surgery was too drastic for her to be a viable candidate.
That was when her Uncle Rory stepped up to offer the lower left lobe of his liver. At only six months of age, little Megan underwent major surgery and received her uncle’s selfless gift. Megan finally had a fighting chance, but what followed was a three month hospital stay with many trials.
Looking back thirty one years later, it is almost impossible to believe we underwent that terrible, terrible time. Her recovery was not smooth, for a serious infection took hold of her lungs. This drove the doctors to put her on an ECMO machine, something that came with lifelong side effects.
To further complicate matters, she also began to bleed internally from an ulcer. Her team desperately tried to cauterize the bleeding, but it was an uphill battle. We still vividly recall how Dr. Alonso informed us that she had failed to cauterize the ulcer because Megan was bleeding so severely. She would suck the bleeding away, only for it to be too flooded by the time she went back in to seal it. It all felt so hopeless.
The doctors made clear that if her bleeding had not stopped by the morning, they would have to take her off of the machines. The hospital did not have enough blood to keep her alive any longer than that.
We crawled back to the Ronald McDonald House in the wee hours of that morning, utterly defeated and dismayed. We thought for sure we were going to lose her. Megan was going to die.
But God had other plans.
By the grace of nothing short of a miracle, Megan’s bleeding finally stopped. She had an entire army praying for her: hundreds, probably even thousands of people were calling out to God to save her.
The doctors were speechless. The chances for her bleeding to stop was unheard of; it truly was a miracle.
But this is not where her troubles ended. By mid 1995, her portal vein began chronically clotting. The medical team swiftly intervened by placing a stent within her liver. It was no simple task; Megan was still so small, which required an equally tiny stent. However, they still managed it.
Megan’s tiny stent was terra incognita in the world of medicine. Nothing like this had been done before; the medical team had no references on how long it would last.
Indeed, Megan's portal vein continued to stenos (clot off). This has required the doctors to balloon it open several times over her lifetime, and her portal vein has narrowed drastically.
This resulted in a whole new symptom: portal vein hypertension, which has led to scary varices that have resulted in several hospital stays and constant surveillance. Basically, the blood does not have a clear path through her portal vein and back-pressure builds up in a traffic jam of sorts. This has led to Cirrhosis; her spleen has enlarged and holds on to her blood cells, causing low platelets, low white blood cells, and low red blood cells.
Her body could only take so much. While the doctors have done everything they can for her liver, Megan unfortunately was diagnosed with end stage liver disease in 2020.
She was told she had another 3-5 years left with her current liver. These last few years have been incredibly difficult for Megan. She has been hospitalized numerous times and struggled to maintain a normal life.
What awaits Megan on her journey? Well, in the Fall of 2024, she went through all of the diagnostic testing and was finally approved for liver re-transplantation. However, her difficulties have been many, and indeed there are many more challenges still ahead.
It is not just medical hardship she has endured. This has all left Megan financially crippled, despite her long attempts to retain self sufficiency. Although she has tried to maintain employment as a medical assistant, her constant hospitalizations and chronic health difficulties led to being terminated from her job. She could no longer work, her schedule was too unpredictable; her body too ill.
It was a battle, but she was approved for disability in late 2024. Even still, it is a fraction of what she was making. The harsh truth is: Megan and her partner Jose have struggled to make ends meet, and are overwhelmed financially.
Although they are proud and it is difficult for them to ask, they could really use your assistance. If you feel so led to, please donate via the gofundme link provided.
Currently, Megan has been hospitalized because of an E. coli infection in her blood. Though FMLA protects Jose's job, he doesn't get paid when he has to call out because Megan is in the hospital. Her situation remains ever-turbulent, and even just a little donation would go a long way.
Thank you for your time and attention. This journey has been long and difficult, but we’re still standing. Let’s keep going: together.
