Help Hope Live for Mike Fry

UPDATE 12/03/24     ******GIVINGTUESDAY****** TODAY          DECEMBER 3, 2024We want to take this opportunity to thank the people who have donated and are donating today on GIVING TUESDAY in honor of Mike through Live Hope Love.We deeply appreciate your financial support. Update to the original campaign page posted on October 14, 2024 in honor of Michael Wesley Fry .Donations as of 12/03/24 4025.00 out of 10,000.Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the national nonprofit @Help Hope Live in my honor on GivingTuesday.THANK YOU—your support makes all the difference. #GivingTuesday #helphopelive #donations #giving #medicalfundraisingIf anyone still would like to support our goal for Mike’s heart transplant this is an opportunity to help us make the $10000 goal. We are almost halfway there but we still need help reaching it. Any donations would be greatly appreciated as we have made such good progress since Mike had his transplant surgery on November 17, 2024. The surgery went well and the doctors said Mikes recovery so far is going really well. He is still in ICU and will be moved to the step down unit soon. When he is doing well enough in the step down unit we will be going off campus for a minimum of 92 days when Mike will be going to the Hospital daily for cardiac rehab and many tests to make sure Mikes heart is functioning as it should.We love all of your supportive posts and prayers as well. Thanks is not enough to say how much we appreciate your support??❤️??This is the Original Camosign Post: from 10/14/24Hello,  My name is Jan Jefferies and I created this fund raiser for my son, Mike Fry’s travel expenses to Stanford Medical Center for his heart transplant.  This will help with the pre heart transplant appointments, transplant surgery, and our extended stay in Stanford after the heart transplant which in total will be for 3 to 6 months.  This time includes approx 1 to 3 months in the hospital waiting for a match for the heart transplant while he is waiting for the match,  (I will be staying with Mike in his hospital room until the day he has his transplant surgery).  I can’t stay with him after the transplant surgery while he is in ICU.  When Mike is released from the hospital we will be going to an extended stay motel close to the hospital while Mike goes to Cardiac Rehab for approx 92 days.  This estimate comes from the transplant team.  The reason for the 1 to 3 month hospital pre surgery stay is because we have to be within 4 hours of the hospital once they find a match for a heart.  We live in Portland Oregon so it is not possible for us to get to Stanford in the 4 hour time frame for the transplant surgery once they find a match.  The Heart Transplant Team in Portland at OHSU referred Mike to Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto California in May of 2023 because the surgery is too complicated to be done in Portland. I want to give you the background history so you get an idea of how we have come to the point of Mike getting currently listed on the Stanford Transplant List.  Mike was born in 1982 in Boise Idaho with a heart defect TGA “Transposition of the Great Arteries”.   He had a heart balloon procedure at the time of birth to help him survive until he was able to handle open heart surgery at 3 months old.Transposition of the great artery (TGA) is a serious congenital heart defect where the two main arteries leaving the heart are reversed (transposed).  Normally, the pulmonary artery carries blood from the heart to the lungs to get oxygen, and the aorta carries oxygen-rich blood from the heart to the rest of the body.   In TGA, these arteries are switched. This mix-up means the body doesn’t get the oxygen it needs because the blood coming from the body (which needs oxygen) is just sent back out to the body again, and the oxygen-rich blood from the lungs is sent back to the lungs. This is a temporary repair.  At 3 months when Mike had the open heart surgery it was a new surgery for Transposition of the Great Arteries and the surgery survival percentage was 70%.  The doctors did not know how long it would be after this surgery before Mikes heart would begin to fail again.  From the day Mike was born in 1982 he went for many heart tests and checkups in Boise until he was 3 years old and then we moved to Portland Oregon where we went to OHSU once a year for his heart tests and check ups.  In 2010 his heart began showing serious signs of heart failure for the first time since his surgery at 3 months old.  In May 2023 OHSU in Portland made the decision to refer Mike to the Stanford Transplant Team.  In August 2023 we went to Stanford Medical Center for a couple weeks for Mikes latest extensive testing to make sure all of his other organs were functioning properly.  This had to be done to learn if he is Sick enough yet Strong enough to withstand the heart transplant.  In the doctors words “Mike no one looking at you would ever guess that you are in dire need of a heart transplant but we all know how sick you are”.   The doctors also advised us Mikes heart transplant surgery is going to be an extremely complicated surgery.  One of the biggest additional complications is the doctors found a baffle leak (VSP) behind his heart that is not operable because it’s too large and in a place that they can’t effectively make the repair.  If they could repair it this would give Mike more time before he would need a heart transplant.  This has prompted the transplant team at Stanford to make the decision for Mike to be on the heart transplant list. I would like to share with you the kind of person my son Mike is. From 2015 Mike has been on Social Security and unable to work because of the severity of his illness.  He is single but has 3 beautiful children, 2 sons 19 and 15, and a daughter 14 that he has helped raise.  They are his life.  Throughout his life my heart has been and continually is so touched seeing Mikes love, loyalty and dedication to his children and his family.  I am in awe of his positive attitude, courage and bravery he has and continues to show with life struggles and with this heart defect throughout his life.   The doctors told us from the day that Mike had his open heart surgery at 3 months old in 1983 that the best guess for Mikes life expectancy would be into his early twenties when  he would need a heart transplant.  In the doctors words “Mike is a living miracle surviving to the age of 41”.  They have never seen a patient that has had the TGA surgery that Mike had back in 1983 survive as long as Mike has.  I truly believe God is holding and continues holding Mike in the palm of his hands throughout his whole life.  God is so good all the time.   Mikes love of family and life and his will to live to see his children grow up with their families is beyond measure.The funds would be used for our travel costs to and from Stanford,  gas, food, and motel for the 3 months post surgery care that Mike goes to Cardiac Rehab in Stanford.  During our time in Stanford we also will be paying our rent  in Portland.  Mike and I are both on extremely fixed incomes — I am on Social Security and Mike is not able to work and is on Disability.  Our funds are stretched to the very limit.  Any amount you can afford to help us on expenses for this trip will go only to those items I mentioned above.  It’s extremely hard for Mike and I to ask for financial help, but we truly need help to cover these expenses.  Our hearts will be deeply grateful to each and every one of you.“I know times are tough for a lot of people, but if you could find it in your heart to make even the smallest donation, it would be greatly appreciated.Family and friends of Mike Fry are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with transplantation. Mike has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button. For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.Thank you for your support!