24-year-old woman with heart failure makes most out of life with bucket list
Raw video: 24-year-old Jennifer Ortiz has been diagnosed with heart failure and has been denied a third heart transplant. Ortiz is committed to making the most of life now through a bucket list. Help fund her final wishes with a GoFundMe account.
A 24-year-old woman with heart failure who has been denied a third transplant is asking for help in completing a bucket list as her family prepares for the worst.
Jennifer Ortiz, of Commerce City, Colo., is currently relying on a biventricular assist device (BiVAD), which helps pump blood through the body when the heart is failing.
But Ortiz’s heart needs more help than that, which is why her family isn’t sure how much time she has left, KDVR reported.
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“They’re not designed to be a total artificial heart,” Danny Ortiz, her father, told the news outlet.
Ortiz underwent her first heart transplant at age 12 after a prolonged cough led to a diagnosis of an enlarged heart, according to KDVR.
A second transplant was completed in 2017, but that heart is now failing. When she found out on Sept. 5 that she was being placed on palliative care, Ortiz began piecing together a list of things she’d like to do with the time she has left.
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“We’ve got to condense a lifetime into as much time as we have,” Danny Ortiz told KDVR. “It’s a shame that it takes something like this happening to say, ‘Hey, let’s get up and start living.’”
Ortiz began a GoFundMe page to help spread the word about her list, and shared that she is “scared and sad but am trying to stay as positive as I possibly can.” Items on her list include a trip to New York City, seeing a Broadway musical, going to a Cowboys game, attending a taping of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," meeting the Jonas Brothers, and renting a house with her family for Thanksgiving, as she has spent the last five Thanksgivings in the hospital.
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Her page had raised over $14,000 in just five days.