Jennifer Jensen

Family and friends of Jennifer Jensen are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with transplantation.

Jennifer’s long journey started when she began to have breathing issues in 2014, and over the course of a year of having tests done, she was diagnosed with a very rare lung disease in 2015 called Pulmonary Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. A disease that causes one not to be able to breath e and overtime to the point of complete lung deuteriation. Over the last 3 years as the disease has progressed, she has been in out of the hospital numerous times due to Pneumothoraxes caused by the disease, enlarged heart, and most recently because the disease seemed to progress to the point where we could no longer supply enough oxygen at home to keep her there (more than 20 LPM) and were looking for long term care because the hospital would not release her. She was pretty much bed ridden since early this year except to go to the bathroom as she would desaturate to the point of what we would feel like suffocating.

After being listed at Froedtert in Milwaukee and then dual listing at North Western Hospital in Illinois for double lung transplant, Jenny had not received any hits because of the antibodies in her blood that made it extremely difficult if not impossible to find a donor match. After a year or more with Froedtert, they closed their lung transplant program. We were then solely relying on North Western. After about 6 months listed with North Western, they took a different approach to finding a donor. Thanks to that different approach, Jennifer had 2 dry runs this year for transplant, but unfortunately, they did not pan out. But on 9/21 we got our 3rd call, and the 3rd time was indeed a charm. On 9/22 Jennifer had a successful double lung transplant at North Western Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL. She is currently recovering and doing exceptionally well, and can’t thank the hospital, family, friends enough for the wishes, prayers, and support they have provided. She has been a trooper through the whole process.

We are asking family and friends to help in fundraising for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to help with medical expenses incurred during the build up and after transplant. These include medication which will go one for life, hospital expenses, as well as lodging near the hospital because part of post transplant care, they require you to be within close proximity for 60 to 90 days after discharge.

Jennifer 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!