One Kidney, Please

Three-year-old Helen Lynn needs a kidney. She contracted a dangerous strain of E-coli last September and developed a disease called hemolytic uremic syndrome. Currently, her kidneys are only working at about 5%.

Helen undergoes dialysis for nine hours every night as she sleeps. The dialysis helps clean out toxins accumulating in her body. Because she's lost her sense of appetite, Helen gets nearly all her food through a tube. They are waiting for a transplant, because it is difficult to find a match since Helen's blood type is O-positive.

To help them cope, a family friend, who is recently cervical cancer free, is paying it forward. "My surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments would not have been nearly as tolerable without all the love and support I received," said family friend and lead fundraiser Dana Schallheim.

Schallheim teamed up with the Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA), a national non-profit to raise money for Helen. All the money will go to Helen's medical costs over the span of her life. The goal is to raise $75,000. If they're lucky, a kidney will last about 20 years. That means Helen may have three to four transplants in her lifetime.

Today’s gift was to donate here to help Helen with the money she will need for her kidney transplant and ongoing care. On the donation page one mother wrote “Part of the girls’ allowance goes towards donations. They are gladly choosing to contribute for Helen.” I don’t think much about my internal organs until I hear stories like this. Let’s hope she gets a new kidney soon.

In Giving,

Robin

Helen's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/COTAforHelenL