Help Brittany Live

I am Charmaine Keller. Brittany Burkett is my granddaughter. She was born with switched chromosomes and needs your help immediately. Her 3rd and 5th chromosomes are swithched with lost data, duplicate data and too much data. It's called Unbalanced Translocation. It's not good. Brittany needs help now. Medical bills have been piling up, AND they have now lost their apartment and are forced to crowd in on a friend.  Early on, doctors had trouble finding a prognosis and treatment for Brittany. This year it was discovered Brittany's vagal nerve is damaged.

Can you help them? Please go to her donation page to see a more lengthy description of what Mandy and Brittany face at this point.

Any kind of donation is deeply appreciated. We have 2 options for donating:

Click on the PayPal link, login, then click on the "Send Money" tab, and enter Brittany's email address "HelpBrittanyLive@yahoo.com". The rest is easy to figure out. Or....
http://www.paypal.com

Go to Brittany's Indiegogo.com donation page (I found out it takes longer for Brittany to get the money though).
http://www.indiegogo.com/HelpSaveBrittany?c=home&a=768590

Here's Brittany's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/257357521035616/

Again, any help, no matter how small will help.

Peace,
Charmaine

Brittany's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/257357521035616/

Information about Unbalanced Translocation genetic disorders and the vagal nerve condition
http://www.chromodisorder.org/CDO/General/IntroToChromosomes.aspx

http://www.hudsonalpha.org/education/kits/disorder-detectives/chromosome-abnormalities

http://www.reproductivegenetics.com/translocations.html

diagnose a definite name for her illness except to say they could not predict how long Brittany will live. So far, Brittany is 17. Doctors have been dealing with life-threatening symptoms since she was born. Mandy has had to live every day with the fear hanging over her that “this could be the day” when Brittany doesn’t wake up.

And now they are homeless. A life-long friend of Mandy has made room for them to move in there, but it is an inconvenience for her friend and her mother. Prior to moving, Brittany's bed was downstairs, because she can no longer climb stairs and faints without warning. The upside: Mandy’s friend lives in a prairie style house.

Can you help them? If so, this is the link to the donation page. Any kind of donation is deeply appreciated:
http://www.indiegogo.com/HelpSaveBrittany?c=home&a=768590

Brittany's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/257357521035616/

Perhaps we can turn this into a campaign to encourage discoveries to cure this health issue.

Everyone who meets Brittany is impressed with how fun and pragmatic she stays despite what she faces. She has already picked her major for college, maintaining a positive, forward perspective. She does not focus on her illness, but instead has fun teasing her mother (and me) and making jokes. She has a fun personality and a good soul. I feel she will be a great contributor to our society. I know it.

Besides the fact they are basically homeless, the medical bills are continuing to pile up. Brittany is on disability plus there is child support from her father, but it is a drop in the bucket to what is needed. I am on disability, too, and am tormented that I can’t help financially. Even the business I had is on hold.

Can you help her? Brittany and Mandy need financial help for a stable home and to address the ongoing medical expenses.

When Brittany was born and health issues became apparent, doctors told Mandy the diagnosis was Cystic fibrosis, which meant we would be loosing Brittany in her early 20s. As mentioned, she is now 17. Then the doctors thought she had cerebral palsy, but eventually ruled that out. Brittany suffers with low immunity issues making her susceptible to everything. The biggest fight going on at the moment is her major blood pressure swings (the other day at the hospital, it dropped to zero!!!), and now Brittany is mostly bed-ridden.

At this point, it's almost a daily trip to the ER dealing with the blood pressure swings. The latest, dangerous issue Brittany and her mother have been told is that Brittany's vegal nerve, which apparently helps keep the heart stable, is damaged. No word on whether surgery is on the docket.

Brittany is no longer going to school, and this has been a big disappointment for her. She had lots of friends and was on the drill team of a Rowlett, TX school. Now she is home schooled and feels isolated. A couple months ago some of her friends came to visit her, and Mandy said it was good to hear Brittany sounding joyous while she chattered with her friends.

Brittany stays in bed most of the time. Going for a drive with her mom has become periodic depending on her strength. She sleeps a lot. Very unstable blood pressure issues cause the problems. Often Brittany will get up to get something from the fridge and faint without warning. Mandy has asked, “Brittany? Where are you?” Then she’d hear Brittany respond in frustration, “Over here; I fainted again.”

Can you help them?

Her mother and she are losing their apartment and are forced to move into a friend's house. Mandy has tried to keep jobs all her life, but employers would get tired quickly when Mandy would have to drop everything 2-3 times a week to rush Brittany to the hospital. Mandy needs a lot of help. She told me one day when I started crying, "Mom, I have to keep my heart very hard or Brittany's spirit will drop if she sees me crying and fretting over her illness. And so do you." She was right. Mandy also needs me to be strong and to harden myself from the fears.

Before this latest decline in Brittany's health, Mandy had been focusing forward, too, taking classes at a community college and managing a B average. Everything has come to a screeching halt now.

I am in Kansas City, and they live in the Dallas, TX area. Mandy is trying to weigh out her options. There are really good physicians at Children's Mercy Hospital and KU Medical Hospital here in Kansas City. But which is better? Should she bring Brittany back home to KC where Mandy has her family, and hope there are doctors here who have the detailed skills to pick up where the Dallas doctors left off? Or should she stay in Dallas with the doctors familiar with Brittany's condition, while at the same time, becoming homeless and now forced to move in on a friend. All of Mandy's family support is in St. Joseph, MO and me, of course, in Kansas City. Mandy is completely alone with all this down in Texas.

Can you help Brittany and Mandy? They both deserve it. The sooner she gets help, the better the chances of hopefully getting Brittany stabilized. I want them to move home. I live in the Shawnee Mission School District, which I was told is in the top 10 school districts of the country. Don’t know if that’s accurate. However, if they could come back to Kansas City, Mandy won’t be facing all this alone.

Can you help them?

More Information:

Accept PayPal. Email address: HelpBrittanyLive@yahoo.com
PayPal accepts most credit cards.

http://www.chromodisorder.org/CDO/General/IntroToChromosomes.aspx

http://www.hudsonalpha.org/education/kits/disorder-detectives/chromosome-abnormalities

http://www.reproductivegenetics.com/translocations.html