I wanted to take a minute on a personal note and tell you about a fund raiser my cousin Sherydon is having for my nephew Easten. This is my personl plee for all my friends and anyone who knows the Karren family to help raise money for Eastens Liver transplant.
For those of you who don't know Easten he is now almost 15 months old. At Easten's two month check up he was diagnoised with a rare liver disease called Biliary Atresia. Bascially Easten was born without a Gallbladder and I know you are all thinking that you can live without a gallbladder at least this is what I thought when I first heard. It turns out that the gallbladder is very importent in infants. Easten did not have any bile ducts to his liver, which caused the liver to form scerosis.
Easten had a six hour procedure on Aug.20 of 2007. This procedure they went in and formed new bile ducts from the liver to the small intestine to allow the bile to flow freely. This procedure unfortunately is just a band-aid. The only cure for this disease is a liver transplant.
Easten had been in and out of Primary Childrens Hospital his whole life. He is doing very well right now weighting in at 17 pounds. Easten is a energetic 1 year old little boy who is now just starting to crawl.
There are certain signs of liver failure and Easten is starting to show those signs. Holly and Rusty are not sure when the transplant will be needed but, depending on Eastens age and weight he may be able to have a partial liver from a live donor. This would be our hope because he wouldn't have to wait on a donor list.
The money we are raising is for the testing of the live donor. Holly & Rustys insurance will only pay so much for the process of finding a donor. There are so many expenses that will occur while Easten will be recovering in the hospital after the transplant.
Rusty may need to take time off of work and he will be traveling alot from work to home to the hospital. There is the expense of food and gas as well.
We have scheduled the fund raiser for Sept. 6 from 7:00 pm to 9:00pm at the Lions Lodge in Smithfield. There will be dinner served and the cost is $10.00 a plate. There will be a live band and a silent auction.
Please come and help raise money for this special little boy. Your support will be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions please feel free to call me any time.
5 comments:
Jackie-very well said and explained. Thanks for helping with everything!! Love ya
That is a very touching story. Hopefully everything goes well for him.
I think it is great your family is doing this...I think you guys are all so great & supportive of each other. I will write the date down. We really need to get together soon!
Count me in. Can I bring anything or help with the food cost?
I am so sorry to hear about needing a transplant. I have heard that live transplants are much easier now than a few years ago being that you have to have less of the markers than in the past. At least that is with adults anyway. What is Easten's blood type? I heard that is the biggest marker. What other markers are they looking for? I am just curious if Holly, Rusty, or any of your extended family would be matches. I wish you the best of luck. I am in Layton, only 1/2 north of PCM and would gladly offer to help in any way.
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