GoFundMe For Mother, Grandmother Fighting For Her Life

NEW LONDON, CT — It's a heartbreaking story. Mother and grandmother Aracelis Manso, 45, is a fighter, her daughter says.

She is fighting for her life.

Since October, when her daughter started a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of a double lung transplant, even as Manso was still working in order to keep her health insurance, there was good news but now, the situation is dire.

"She's fighting so hard to make it," daughter Athena Jackson wrote on the fundraising page. With a goal of $100,000, 52 donors have pledged a total of just over $2,000.

In 2015, Manso, a working mother of three children and three grandchildren, developed pneumonia in both of her lungs.

"In the following months she was not getting better despite a good diet and exercise.They ran tests and discovered that she had an autoimmune disease that attacked my mom’s healthy lung tissue leaving them with Interstitial Lung Disease and scarred with fibrosis," Jackson wrote. "In 2017, she had contracted the common cold that lead to respiratory failure and she was in ICU for week. She had recovered from that but the disease has worsened.This disease is progressive and terminal." A double-lung transplant would save her, Jackson wrote.

Then, on Dec. 2, Manso had a lung transplant surgery. But the news days later was devastating.

"Five days post transplant my mother had a massive stroke while under sedation. It went undetected for 4-6 hours. The clot was too big to remove safely because of the risk," Jackson wrote in an update.

"They did a needed emergency hemicraniectomy where they removed part of my moms skull to allow the brain to swell. Which it did. So far her vital signs are good. Shes got pneumonia in the new lung they are doing their best to prevent scarring from occurring in the new lung and they are unsure if she can move the right side of her body speak or understand speech at the moment," Jackson wrote. "She's fighting so hard to make it through this long scary process they say she could be hospitalized for up to a year. Please pray for her and send positive energy and love. We hope you continue to support us through this journey. Thank you. Anything will help even if its just a share."

With mostly small donations for $5 to $20 and in a few cases, a bit more, folks say they wish they could help more.

"I am a mother of 4 and I can’t imagine how she feels as well as her kids had I ever been in need I would hope others would help me n my kids..... god bless u n your children. I pray for your opportunity to heal," wrote one person who donated $20.

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