COTA for Haven

Our Story

For those that do not know, Haven is 13 years old and was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in 2006. By the age of three, she underwent four open heart surgeries to repair her heart and countless closed heart procedures. Haven received a multi-sited pacemaker at the age of five and had it recently replaced in April 2020. Haven and her family have traveled the nation to see specialists throughout her life. Haven’s mother Tanya got a call August 15^th that Seattle Children’s Hospital had a heart for Haven. On August 16, 2020, Haven received a heart transplant during a sixteen-hour surgery and now her next long journey begins … recovery.

For now, Tanya and her family are already incurring massive expenses due to travel back/forth to Seattle, as well as the family’s housing and meals in Seattle. We are sharing this site to start fundraising for COTA in honor of Haven so COTA can help relieve just a little pressure during this emotional time.  Beyond those expenses, Haven suffered a stoke during one of her procedures and has lost movement and control on most of her left side.  We are now also raising funds to help with her long-term care, such as adaptive equipment around the home and one-handed activities she will enjoy (think one-handed joystick to be able to interact with her friends on her Ipad, and an adaptive computer for online schooling, etc).

Moving forward, there will be organized local and online fundraisers for COTA to help with a lifetime of transplant-related expenses, such as the uncovered medical costs of Haven’s transplant. Again, more info will be added soon. Please feel free to share this with family and friends!

Haven is such an inspiration … such a strong spirit … such a loving soul. Please keep her, her family, and her medical team in your thoughts and prayers. We will be updating this site and creating a social media page soon to keep everyone as up-to-date on Haven’s progress as possible.

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.