Hello all!

Firstly, thank you so much to all of you for making our inaugural golf tournament, Teeing off for Transplant Families a huge success. You can see pictures of this event on our social media accounts.

We wanted to make you aware that we have acquired 4 more families raising our total number of families helped to 39! Please read about them here. 

Benita Martin, 3 years-old: Benita was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (same as our hero!) at 1 year old and is currently listed and waiting for a life-saving heart transplant. She is at home with her family with trips back and forth to the hospital. The family continues to have many transplant-related needs. https://cota.org/cotaforbenitasjourney/our-story/

Elijah Diaz, 11 years-old: Elijah was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome  and received a life-saving heart transplant in September of 2023. Thankfully, Elijah has done really well post-transplant. He continues to have follow-up appointments at the hospital over 100 miles away from home. The family, including Elijah and his younger sister, continue to incur ongoing expenses. Children’s Organ Transplant Association > COTA for Elijah.

Spencer Lockard, 12 years-old: Spencer is from Roanoke, Virginia. The Lockard family began working with COTA in May of 2015. Spencer received his life-saving heart transplant in June of that year when he was just under 3 years old. Throughout the 10 years that this family has been with COTA, they have had significant transplant-related expenses and are running out of funds to keep up with his ongoing medical expenses. Most recently the family has requested help with rental car and hotel expenses to get to their annual transplant follow up appointments. https://cota.org/cotaforspencerl/.

Debron Martin, 17 years-old: Debron normally lives with his family in Miami, Florida but for the past year Debron has been living in or near Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago with his mom by his sidey. He received a life-saving heart and liver transplant in April. He had to spend months in the hospital post-transplant and are now required to stay near Lurie through the end of this year due to his complex medical history. Given the fact that his family is from out of state, the out of pocket expenses are extraordinary. You can see more here: https://cota.org/cotaforteamdebron/.