Cassie's Journey

Cassie has continued her fight over the past few days. She went back to the OR on Friday (6/20) to do a wound cleanout of her original chest incision where they did debride any tissue that looked infected, and ensuring her chest incision is sterilized. The medical staff took cultures of the remaining tissue to ensure there was no infection before they closed up the wound. Unfortunately, the infection persisted and her scheduled surgery on Monday (6/23) was adjusted from a chest closure, to another chest cleanout. This morning the team removed any tissue that looked infected, and took more cultures. The cultures will take ~2 days to be studied to determine if any infection remains. Once these cultures come back, the medical staff will make the decision if they are ready for chest closure or Cassie will go back to the OR for another washout while the antibiotics they are providing her continue to address the infection.

Over the past week, while her chest has remained open, she has not been able to participate in any PT/OT or breathe on room air as these both cause her significant pain.

Please continue to keep Cassie in your thoughts and prayers as she is fighting off her chest infection setback. As the family is preparing to celebrate Cassie’s birthday on Wednesday this week, please pass along birthday wishes through this page and the family will share them with her on her special day.

Cassie has had a busy last couple days in her recovery process. She underwent a lengthy surgical procedure to cleanup an infection of the chest wound from her original surgery. While the team is confident they have cleared the infection they will closely monitor the area. They have scheduled take her back into the OR tomorrow for another washout to ensure there is no remaining infection prior to chest closure.

Breathing continues to be a substantial challenge and her ability to independently breathe on room air varies daily. Over the past week the team has performed bilateral Thoracentesis’, a procedure performed to removed excess fluid from the lung space. Both procedures were deemed successful and removed approximately 1.5-2 L of fluid each from her pulmonary system. The medical staff is hoping that the fluid removal will allow more proper expansion of the lungs and ease her ability to breathe. 

Therapy continues to work with her as her tolerance permits and the family has seen substantial progress in her hand and wrist ability. The team is currently happy with healing of her lower residual limbs and plan to continue to monitor progress to set her up for best long term functionality. 

As she navigates the ever fluctuating nature of each hour, day and week – Cassie continues to push through with strength, resilience and her radiant smile. 

Cassie is continuing to experience the ups and downs of recovery. The past few days she has had some positive developments in her kidneys, while experiencing some difficulty with her ability to breathe on room air. Cassie is continuing to tolerate intermittent dialysis which the medical staff is using to clean her blood, and continue to remove fluid from her body. While dialysis will continue, they are seeing increased kidney function.

However, over the past few days breathing on room air has been a significant challenge for Cassie. She has only been able to tolerate room air for 3 hours at a time, and up to 7 hours in a day. She has also been extremely drowsy over the past few days. The medical staff have confirmed that her main chest incision from the transplant is infected. They are continuing tests to ensure that the infection is only in the skin, and not in the blood stream. She will have to take another trip to the OR this week to address this infection and begin treatment with antibiotics.

Cassie’s lower residual limbs are continuing to shape up nicely. The plastics team removed the wound vacs from both of them today and were pleased with how the wounds are healing. They will continue to monitor her residual limbs to determine the next steps to ready them for the use of a prosthesis. Thank you for the continued support, thoughts, and prayers that are being passed along to Cassie.

Since our last update, Cassie continues to show incredible resilience on this road to recovery. She’s now spending 12 to 13 hours a day on a trache mask with room air, a big step forward in her respiratory progress. Room air breathing fluctuates daily as she continues to deal with mucus build up caused from prolonged ventilation and immobility. She’s still undergoing dialysis regularly, but she’s been working hard every day with speech, physical and occupational therapy to build her strength and regain more independence.

On the surgical side plastics, vascular and prosthetic teams are actively managing her care, focusing on proper healing of her residual limbs. They’ve started wrapping them in compression stockings to support healing and reduce swelling—another important part of the process. It’s been a steady climb with plenty of challenges, but Cassie continues to show up daily with strength, grace, and a fighting spirit.

Cassie has been very appreciative of all the encouragement and support she has received. We are so grateful for the many cards, gifts, and kind words that have been sent our way—each one has truly lifted our spirits. The love and support we’ve felt from so many has meant more than we can express. While we’d love to thank everyone personally, the volume of generosity and our focus on Cassie’s care make that difficult at the moment. Please know how much we appreciate every single gesture. Cassie has also been tremendously thankful for all of those in the education community that have constantly been thinking about and supporting her throughout this process.

Today Cassie underwent a below knee amputation on her right leg. The surgery went extremely well, and Cassie now has a very clear path forward to her recovery. She is continuing to work on her arm and core rehabilitation with PT / OT, and the family has seen significant progress in her arm functionality.

Cassie continues to tolerate intermittent dialysis well, and she is getting this done 3 times a week. While the nephrology tests are confirming there is kidney functionality, at this moment it is very minimal. The nephrology team still expresses optimism that overtime her kidney function will return, but this could take an extended period of time.

The medical staff have continued to support Cassie in getting outside and enjoying the summer air. She was able to be back outside this weekend for ~45 minutes. She continues to increase her ability to breathe on room air, hitting the 12 hour mark multiple times over the past week.

While Cassie’s recovery journey is far from over, today represented the last macro-surgery that she had scheduled ahead of her. She will now be able to fully focus on recovery and rehabilitation.

Cassie continues to fight and focus daily on her recovery 

She has progressed in her trache mask breathing on room air for up to 9-10 hours a day. She is becoming more comfortable with the speaking valve and is improving her ability to effectively vocalize. Speech therapy continues to emphasize swallow strengthening and have cleared Cassie to utilize ice chips to practice. 

PT/OT work with her daily with emphasis these last couple days on upper extremity dexterity and core stability to regain hand function and improve her sitting ability. 

She remains on intermittent dialysis for proper fluid offload and has not yet regained much function from her kidneys. 

She was prepared for a large surgery on Tuesday June 3rd on her right foot. The Surgeon was optimistic of the potential to conserve most of her foot and utilize her back muscle (Latissimus Dorsi) as a muscle flap to create a functional foot. However, early in the procedure the surgeon discovered that there was extensive foot bone damage and deemed the foot non-viable.  At this point the surgeon and team are discussing further options, but surgical intervention on the right leg is inevitable. 

Although this was tough on her, The team and surgeon reiterated how optimistic and confident they are that return to full function (walking, pickleball, running) is extremely possible and plan to make all decisions based on her best functional interest. 

We appreciate the continued support and never ending prayers for our beloved Cassie. We understand the ever fluctuating nature of her situation and have decided this page will post past-tense facts that have occurred in her recovery rather than hypothetical future possibilities. 

Please continue to send Cassie encouragement as she navigates the hills and valleys of recovery

Cassie had a productive weekend where she continued to work with Physical / Occupational Therapy on her hand dexterity, arm and leg movement, and core stability. She has continued to get more strength throughout her body.

Cassie continues to work on room air and has gotten up to 9 hours in a day. She is continuing to push her limits to go further off the use of ventilation support. While she is able to be on room air more, she has been able to increase her time talking to the family.

Cassie is continuing to tolerate dialysis well. She has dialysis performed 3-4 times a week depending on her fluid levels.

The family has continued to see her increase her endurance as she continues her road to recovery.

Cassie has had a busy last few days focusing on PT / OT sessions and continuing to work on her breathing with the trach mask. She has been able to get up to 8 hours on the trach mask, and is only on CPAP at night. CPAP lets her initiate breaths, but provides her with oxygen support.

Speech has also evaluated her swallowing ability to see if she can eat / drink. While her swallowing ability looks okay, she is still not strong enough to be able to eat or drink on her own. Speech will work with her to strengthen those muscles and allow for her to eat and drink by giving Cassie swallowing exercises.

Cassie was also able to soak up some sun rays outside for 45 minutes today. Over the past few days she has been able to speak for an hour at a time to the family, where she has reiterated how thankful she is for all the love and support that her community has provided to her. Cassie and the family would like to thank the Van Buren Community for making Cassie the honoree for the last day of school walk, and for providing awareness about organ donation.

Cassie continues to make meaningful strides in her recovery with unwavering faith and determination. The most uplifting moment was on Saturday when she got to take a 45 minute trip outside. Cassie was able to soak up the sunshine with a big smile on her face, a huge morale boost for her and the family

Her progress in physical and occupational therapy has been encouraging, as she has been able to sit up on the edge of bed for 25 minutes and complete arm, hand and trunk exercises. Cassie for the first time was also assisted by the staff into a chair where she stayed for a full two hours. Although it seems like small steps, they’re big wins reflecting the strength she continues to show daily.

Cassie’s transplanted heart continues to maintain proper function as she was able to wean entirely off dobutamine (heart assist medication) without issue. She has made notable improvement in lung function as she was able to tolerate 4 hours of “room air” for two consecutive days. This is a significant milestone that can allow for more use of the speaking valve and the potential of the speech team to evaluate her for a swallowing test – a step toward being able to eat and drink again. 

While her kidneys still aren’t functioning at full capacity, she remains off continuous renal therapy and is stable with intermittent dialysis every other day. They have confirmed that the kidney’s are producing but not at the consistent rate required for normal fluid offload. 

Additionally, the plastics team is very pleased with the healing of her left residual limb. If progress continues, they’re preparing to move forward with surgical intervention on the right lower extremity in the next few weeks.

Cassie continues to express her extreme gratitude for the multitude of thoughts, prayers, cards, and assistance the family has received throughout this process. Every single prayer continues to make a difference. This journey is full of peaks and valleys, but with continued encouragement Cassie remains ready to face each step ahead with strength and resilience.

Cassie has had a busy week in her recovery. On Monday Cassie went back to the OR (her 17th trip). The plastics team continued to spend time preparing her residual lower left limb for a prosthetic. The plastics team was very pleased with the progress of this residual limb, and were able to close up all of the other wounds remaining from her fasciotomy. The plastics team did also confirm that there will be some form of amputation that must take place on her lower right leg. No surgery will be happening for a few more weeks as they continue to evaluate how to approach the amputation.

Cassie continued to spend time each day working with Physical Therapy, they sat her up on the side of the bed for 10-20 minutes and moved her arms and legs, They also placed an emphasis on strengthening her core and neck muscles. Occupational Therapy has also visited each day working to increase her hand dexterity.

Cassie has continued to work daily with the respiratory team to increase her ability to breathe on room air. She has been able to breathe for 4+ hours on room air. The 4 hour mark of room air was a significant milestone, as the Speech team then were willing to evaluate her for a speaking valve. She was able to speak her first sentences to the family today, stating how much she loved us, she missed us, and how she is ready to go home!

Cassie has transitioned away from CRT (Continual Renal Therapy) which is constant dialysis that she has been on since the original surgery. She transitioned to PRT (Partial Renal Therapy) from 6 PM – 6 AM for a few days, and today is beginning intermittent dialysis. The intermittent dialysis is currently scheduled for every other day. While she has had some breaks off of dialysis, the medical staff believe her kidneys are jumping back into action as she is able to offload her own fluids.

Cassie continues to fight through her recovery, tackling each obstacle with her infamous smile. She is working so hard to regain her strength to get her voice back so she can let loose, with all the thoughts that have been pent up in her mind for 6 weeks now. We wish you all a blessed Memorial Day weekend! 🇺🇸.

A huge thank you to the Van Buren School district for the incredibly inspirational video. Cassie absolutely loved it and made her smile ear to ear. A link to the video is below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wA4EV_FJl0wDjJ0yXzVXJpyDoOxgJUdc/view?usp=sharing