A rare disease is requiring a Virginia woman to undergo an organ transplant nearly two months after giving birth to a baby boy.
Terri Rutledge reached out to WLDS-WEAI News this week to share the journey of her daughter, Aileena Rose.
For more than two decades, Rose has been in and out of hospitals, racking up medical bills “in the hundreds-of-thousands of dollars.”
“When she was about 16, they discovered a lot of colon polyps. Combined with previous issues, they diagnosed her with Gardner’s Syndrome, which is a rare disorder. It isn’t caner, but it falls under that umbrella,” says Rutledge.
Rutledge says Rose learned more about her medical problems during her recent pregnancy.
“Currently she is up in Chicago. During the pregnancy, when she started becoming sick frequently, they discovered a large tumor in her abdomen during CAT Scans. It was crowding the baby, so they took him at 32 weeks. We are hoping to get him home later this month. They hoped the tumor would shrink after the pregnancy, so they could remove it. It grew, fingered out and invaded some of the organs in her abdomen. It later poked a hole in her intestine,” says Rutledge.
Rose is now in need of a transplant for her pancreas, intestines and stomach. Rutledge says the closest location and best doctor to perform the surgery is at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
Several fundraisers, including a trivia night in Virginia on June 18th, are in motion to raise money for medical and daily expenses. Additional fundraiser information can be found on the Aileena Rose’s Journey Facebook page.
Rutledge has set up a GoFundMe account and US Bank account to collect donations.