COTA for Dylan Strong

Our Story

Dylan Wallace is a sweet and funny 15-year-old girl from Redding, CA. She is currently waiting for a liver transplant.

Dylan was living a normal life until late 2021, when she started experiencing abdominal pain. Under the care of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, she was eventually diagnosed with an extremely rare inflammatory tumor at the base of her liver. This came as a devastating shock. While the tumor is not “malignant” in the traditional sense, it is threatening her life.

The tumor has surrounded and invaded the vessels and ducts supplying Dylan’s liver, and has also spread to her pancreas, intestine, stomach, aorta, and vena cava. Because of its type and location, surgery to remove the tumor was unsuccessful, and medicine infusions have also been unsuccessful. She’s had several procedures to try to control the tumor damage, including stent placements to keep vessels open against the force of the tumor compressing them.

Having exhausted all other treatments, experts at Stanford and other top hospitals have all concluded that a liver transplant from a deceased donor is Dylan’s only option. 

In May 2024, Dylan experienced a series of catastrophic internal bleeds. Vomiting blood, she was life flighted to Stanford twice. They were fortunately able to slow these life-threatening bleeds, but Dylan is being watched carefully and takes medication in an attempt to prevent another major bleed. Her doctors immediately won their appeal to have her moved up the transplant list.

Dylan and her family have spent countless hours making the long drives between Redding and Palo Alto. Dylan’s mother is a nurse, but has barely been able to work due to managing Dylan’s care. Dylan and her caregivers will be required to stay in the Stanford area for many weeks after her combined liver transplant and Whipple procedure, and the costs for transplant-related care are staggering.

While she has shown such strength and bravery, this has all been incredibly traumatic for Dylan. She just wants to be a regular high schooler. She hates missing her sister, her pets, her family, her friends, her school, her teammates, and everything else when she is away from home. She never wants to let anyone down and has persevered through intense pain and nausea to attend school and swim meets and other normal teenager activities when possible. Dylan is not a complainer, and hesitates to even admit when she needs something. She is loving and tender-hearted, shy but with a sly sense of humor. She so much appreciates any support that people show her. 

How can you help? Please make a donation to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) in Dylan’s name. 100% of each contribution to COTA for Dylan is available for her lifetime of transplant-related expenses.

Please come alongside us as we work together to help Dylan receive a new liver and to heal. We want to see this amazing young woman return to the healthy, happy, and hopeful life she deserves to live.

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.