Car bash fundraiser helps Cecil family after liver transplant
Rachel Thomas pushes her daughter Rachel on a swingset while keeping an eye on her three other children in Cecil.
Half ‘brownie,’ half ‘birdie,’ the Buick Skylark will be without windows but will have plenty of dings and dents after the car bash.
Rachel Thomas, 3, sits on the car that was bashed by a dozen people in an effort to raise money for the family’s unpaid medical bills.
Rachel Thomas seemed reluctant to take the first swing, but the dozens lined up behind the 3-year-old weren’t shy about laying a sledgehammer into the hood of a 1990s Buick Skylark.
Thomas and her parents, John and Kristi, were at the car bash fundraiser Sept. 6 at the Chartiers Valley Shopping center as fellow members of the Crossroads Church in Bridgeville organized the event to help raise money for the family’s nearly $30,000 in unpaid medical bills after John gave a section of his liver to Rachel.
“We’ve raised $2,267 so far, and we have at least two more events through October,” volunteer coordinator Tawney Roddy said.
The uncovered hospital expenses don’t count the future costs Rachel will face.
“She’ll be on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life,” John Thomas, 33, said.
Thomas donated roughly one quarter of his liver to his daughter on June 2 after multiple complications were found with cysts in her bile ducts and she had developed biliary atresia, which prevents bile ducts from growing. Both were out of the hospital within nine days despite doctors saying it would be a month. Thomas is nearly fully recovered while his daughter has at least one more surgery in the spring to repair abdominal muscles.
The Thomas family knew they would be in for a long-term care situation from the start, but they say they didn’t know how complicated or how serious it would be.
“Before she was born, we knew she had a cyst on her bile duct coming out of the liver, and doctors were telling us they’ll remove it and it won’t be a problem. But after she was born, she started having periods of jaundice that wouldn’t go away. We knew something was really wrong,” Thomas said
“They decided for surgery and fix whatever else they found in there. Well, they found biliary atresia … Doctors connected her intestines to her liver directly which takes care of it temporarily, but she needed a liver transplant,” he said.
Because of the surgery, she had chronic internal bleeding, and her organs were constantly infected with bacteria, meaning she had to switch antibiotics every month. And the anti-rejection drugs she takes lower her immune system.
“The symptoms for rejection are fever and flu-like, so it’s going to be a scary flu season with lots of trips to the emergency room because you just don’t know,” Kristi Thomas, 32, said.
Rachel’s complications placed her low on a donation list, so John stepped in because the wait could have proven fatal.
“We thought John could be a backup plan, but when the doctors said she needed one now, John stepped in,” Kristi said.
Raising four kids, Kristi said she and her husband found their church family a more than welcome support group.
“For me, I just depend on God. I know without that, I can’t do any of this. We have family nearby, a strong church family. I just know that I always have someone I can call, ‘hey, I need someone to watch the kids.’ I’m going with Rachel to the emergency room.”
Other upcoming fundraising events include a cookie decorating booth at the Cecil Township Fall Festival Sept. 27-28 and “A Night of Music” at the Crossroads Church Oct. 23.