Help Hope Live in the News4.3.24

Florida mom with a ‘one in a million’ heart condition in need of transplant

Heart transplant candidate Tashawna Shepard is interviewed by FOX Orlando. The headline reads Mother Needs Heart Transplant. Tashawna has brown skin, brown eyes, a bright red shirt, and black hair pulled up into a bun.

“Life had just sent our family a blessing…It hurts to sit and wonder if you are going to be able to see any of your children grow up.”

38-year-old Tashawna Shepard had just given birth to her first baby boy – her fifth child – in September 2023. Just two weeks after his birth, she received shocking news: she was living with end-stage heart failure.

Heart transplant candidate Tashawna Shepard is interviewed by FOX Orlando. The headline reads FOX 35 Kelsie Cairns, which is the name of the reporter. Kelsie is standing in front of a large screen displaying a photo of Tashawna. Kelsie has light skin, shoulder-length blonde hair, and a lemon-yellow formal dress. In the photo behind her, lying in a hospital bed in a hospital gown,with tubes connected to her nose and arms, Tashawna has brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair pulled up into a bun.

Extreme pain in her back led her to seek medical care, which resulted in her postpartum cardiomyopathy diagnosis.

A heart transplant will change her life, but the financial burden is significant, topping $1.6 million before insurance. That’s why she turned to Help Hope Live for trusted medical fundraising.