Merribeth Pentasuglia

Merribeth Pentasuglia is raising money for uninsured medical expenses associated with her kidney transplant. Even with insurance a transplant is financially draining. She has many out of pocket expenses that are not covered by insurance. Some of these expenses are co-pays, deductibles, lab fees, travel back and forth to the transplant center, relocation at the time of transplant and a life-time of anti-rejection medications.

Merribeth lives in Philadelphia, PA with her two dogs, Cleo and Lola. To stay alive, Merribeth is on home hemodialysis performing 6-8 hour treatments, five days a week. She is able to work and being a somewhat functioning member of society however between dialysis and work there really isn’t time for much else. She is currently being evaluated by the transplant specialists at at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Due to a previous kidney transplant that never failed to start up and was removed one day after transplantation, she is considered high risk. The previous transplant has caused her body to create a high level of antibodies that make it much more difficult to match a kidney for a third life-saving transplant.

Typically, your antibodies protect you from viruses and bacteria. However in the case of transplantation, these antibodies attack donor kidney as they are a foreign object. This means that her chances of finding a donor that is compatible has decreased significantly. She is still fighting the good fight and is being evaluated as some of the best hospitals on the east coast to find a center that understands her specific medical issues and is able to provide superior care to hopefully transplant a working kidney.

She will need to travel between Philadelphia, NYC and Baltimore quite frequently for pre-transplant evaluations. If the transplant is performed in NYC or Baltimore, she will also need to fund at least three weeks of lodging post-transplant in those cities.

Merribeth has chosen to fund-raise with HelpHOPELive in part because HelpHOPELive provides both tax-deductibility and fiscal accountability to her contributors. Contributors can be sure that funds contributed will be used only to pay or reimburse medically-related expenses.

Thank you for your support!