Carissa Koch

Everyone who knows Carissa knows she overflows with her faith in Jesus as her Savior and Provider! She is passionate about her role as Tante (aunt) Carissa and loves her niece and four nephews like crazy! As the baby of the family, she holds a special place in the hearts of her mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law. She lives joyfully, loves completely, and fights fiercely.

Carissa was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis II when she was 10 years old. Throughout the years, she has been through a couple of disease “flare-ups” ~ times when, despite medication regimen, her symptoms have caused her to be hospitalized and treated. She has met those ups and downs with strength and grace, fully relying on God to meet every need, confident in His timing and plan.

Over the past 10 years, she has been able to maintain a fairly “normal” life-style through daily meds and regular check-ups. Unfortunately, over the past few weeks, that has come to a screeching halt and her liver has ceased working properly. She has cirrhosis and is now awaiting a liver transplant.

While the transplant will save Carissa’s life, it will also be financially draining. Even with insurance, she is facing very high expenses including relocation to Charlottesville to be closer to UVA Transplant Center, travel there and back, post-transplant medications between $500 to $1,200 a month, co-pays, lab fees and more.

To help with the financial burden of Carissa’s uninsured expenses, a fundraising campaign in her honor has been established with HelpHOPELive, a trusted nonprofit organization that has been providing community-based fundraising guidance to patients and their families for more than 30 years. All donations are tax deductible, are held by HelpHOPELive in the South-Atlantic Liver Transplant Fund, and are administered by HelpHOPELive for transplant-related expenses only. Please, consider a contribution.

For credit card contributions, please click the yellow Donate Now button.

Thank you for your encouragement, prayers, support and generosity. Keep an eye on this HelpHOPELive campaign page because we will be posting updates regularly.

Keep praying…God is good!

Heather Carl, Carissa’s big sis
757-609-5796