By writer to news.google.com
For greater than two months, Shoreham native Rebecca Szymanski has been confined to the fifth flooring at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights.
Simply ready.
Ms. Szymanski, 40, is patiently awaiting a match for a coronary heart and liver transplant.
“It may very well be any day — I may get a name in 5 minutes, or it may very well be every week, a month or a few months,” she mentioned in an interview Tuesday morning. “There actually is not any crystal ball.”
The ready is one thing that Ms. Szymanski, who teaches particular schooling at Mattituck Excessive College, is accustomed to. She’s been on go away from instructing since mid-September after an appointment together with her heart specialist revealed dangerously low potassium and kidney ranges.
The outcomes are associated to a uncommon congenital coronary heart situation Ms. Szymanski has had since start: Pulmonary Atresia, Tricuspid Atresia and Transposition of the Nice Vessels, that means she was born with a three-chambered coronary heart with no proper ventricle.
She underwent her first open coronary heart surgical procedure at 30 hours outdated as medical doctors structured her coronary heart to work with no proper ventricle.
Since then, she’s had a number of coronary heart surgical procedures and a whole lot of different procedures to appropriate the situation. The advantages of the operations lasted till 2016, when she skilled two embolisms in her aorta that resulted in one other open coronary heart surgical procedure to revise her earlier coronary heart operation from early childhood to a contemporary model in what’s often known as an extracardiac Fontan process.
Below the care of Dr. Marlon Rosenbaum, Ms. Szymanski was advised that it was attainable and even probably that as a Fontan affected person, her coronary heart would shunt blood in a manner that damages her liver, finally resulting in cirrhosis.
“It was a dialog we’ve had earlier than, so it wasn’t a shock {that a} transplant was talked about,” she defined.
In September, the analysis course of started to just accept Ms. Szymanski as a transplant candidate.
“Dr. Rosenbaum stood up and advocated for me and actually fought to provide me this chance at a second probability,” she mentioned, including that she bought the excellent news and was listed on the transplant listing on Oct. 15.
In cellphone calls, FaceTimes and textual content messages to household and pals, Ms. Szymanski repeated the three phrases her physician shared: “It’s a sure.”
Now, as she waits for the lifesaving transplant, Ms. Szymanski is sharing her story as a strategy to unfold consciousness about organ donation.
In keeping with LiveOnNY, a federally designated organ procurement group for the New York metro area, there are almost 9,000 folks statewide ready for a lifesaving transplant. Nationally, that quantity is roughly 100,000. In New York, anybody over the age of 16 can register as an organ, eye and tissue donor.
“It’s so simple as placing a bit coronary heart in your license,” Ms. Szymanski mentioned. “[Most people] don’t take into consideration being an organ donor … but it surely’s so crucial. Though it’s unlucky that folks should go away, it’s superb what the medical world can do. It permits folks to have a second probability. And that individual will get to reside not only for themselves, however for the donor.”
Although living-donor transplants can usually be carried out for livers, Ms. Szymanski’s case requires each organs to return from the identical individual. She mentioned the donation could come from so far as 3,000 miles away in the US and Puerto Rico. And although her identify has popped up a number of instances as a possible match, there are a slew of different elements that have to align for the operation to be successful.
Within the meantime, Ms. Szymanski is protecting busy resting, studying, doing puzzles, binge-watching her favourite Netflix exhibits. She’s additionally following her physician’s orders and attempting to eat and acquire weight to stay robust and keep energetic by strolling, which is able to support in her restoration course of. Although she will be able to’t go away her hospital flooring, she’s been monitoring 2.5 to three miles every day.
Ms. Szymanski’s assist community, together with household, pals and neighborhood members, have additionally pulled collectively to lift cash to assist her all through the method.
An internet fundraiser was organized by Melanie Unterstein, a longtime buddy of Ms. Szymanski’s since their center faculty days rising up in Shoreham-Wading River.
After launching the GoFundMe web page on Sunday, Nov. 20, donors raised greater than $47,415 towards of the preliminary aim set at $50,000.
The funds will assist Ms. Szymanski with medical bills that aren’t lined by insurance coverage, together with post-transplant drugs, hospital transportation as a result of frequency of visits after surgical procedure, rehabilitation and cardiac remedy.
Monies raised may even assist her members of the family stay shut by as she recovers beneath the care of her medical workforce at NewYork-Presbyterian.
“She by no means asks for something,” Ms. Unterstein mentioned, including that she was overwhelmed by the response the fundraiser has had. “She’s the strongest individual I do know. She’s been sitting in a hospital room for 2 months now, simply ready — and considering of everybody else, too. I name her and he or she cheers me up.”
Ms. Szymanski mentioned she’s extremely grateful for the assist she’s obtained. “It simply means loads to me. I’m seeing names pop up that I knew from elementary faculty or highschool and even folks in my neighborhood I didn’t know effectively,” she mentioned. “When life will get exhausting and also you’re dealing with extraordinarily tough challenges, the great aspect of individuals all the time comes out.”
Extra info
To make a donation towards Ms. Szymanski’s restoration journey, visit the GoFundMe page here.
Residents of New York ages 16 and older can register to be organ donors by becoming a member of the New York State Donate Life Registry. Click here to find out more. You may also learn more at liveonny.org.
— to news.google.com
