IMPORTANT: UPDATES THROUGH COTA AFTER JUNE 28

Thank you for your support up to this point! At this time, our family has decided to partner with the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA), a nonprofit dedicated to raising funds in honor of patients like Gabriela to assist with transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free, so 100% of every donation made in honor of Gabriela will assist with a lifetime of transplant-related expenses. We will not be using CaringBridge anymore after June 28. All updates will then be through COTA. Please follow Gabriela’s journey and consider making a contribution at 

ELA NEWS: As many of you are aware, Ela’s last cath a few weeks ago revealed things were not good. Her heart pressures are extremely high, her collaterals the worse they have seen in her up to this point, and now these new AVMs. The doctor wasn’t able to do any interventions during the cath because her heart is just simply too fragile in its current condition. The time has come for Ela to go wait in the hospital for a new heart.  She will be hooked up 24/7 to a continuous infusion. This medicine, milrinone, will hopefully relax her heart some and bring down the pressures while we continue to wait. This stay is for an undetermined amount of time.  Only God knows how long we will be waiting.  Transplant is already risky for Ela, but she is at even a higher risk (especially bleeding risk) because of all the things I listed above. Once transplanted, Ela and I will need to remain in Philly area close to her transplant center for around another year. The logistics are coming together and Ela will be admitted during the week of June 24. It is hard to believe we are here at this point. It’s hard to fathom the next few years or even the next few weeks/months as our family will be separated and navigating this difficult, difficult journey. (There will be another update released soon that tries to express the enormous complexities of all this and how we are dealing emotionally with it all. More specific ways to pray will be in that future update as well).