Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
The (shortened) backstory:
As many of you know, my dad, Bill, has been diagnosed with NASH (non alcoholic steatohepatitis). This disease is a form of irreversible liver cirrhosis. His liver health has aggressively declined over the past several months, requiring multiple hospitalizations and specialists to manage. In February, his hepatologist recommended he begin the process of being evaluated for liver transplant. He got linked in with the transplant team at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and the past several weeks have been a whirlwind.
Initially, the hope/plan was to transplant via living donor. At the time, Bill's MELD score (one of the markers they use to determine severity of liver disease and consequently, how urgently a patient needs a transplant) was low and he didn't qualify for an organ from a decreased donor. Both Chris and Ray were eligible to be evaluated to donate a portion of their liver to my dad. Chris was evaluated and plans were made to move forward with transplant.
Not long after, Bill's kidney function declined to a point that talks of a dual organ kidney/liver transplant began. Ray was asked by the Northwestern team if he would consider evaluation for kidney transplant. He was evaluated, approved, and dates were set for liver transplant on 6/15 and kidney transplant shortly after (for a variety of reasons, a patient cannot receive 2 living donor transplants in one surgical procedure). Which brings us to this first week of June...
To access the GoFundMe site, please visit
https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-the-hoffs?member=19715811&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer