Walk-A-Thon in Alsip to benefit lung transplant recipient

Family and friends have organized a walk-a-thon in Alsip on Sunday, July 25 to help the family of middle school student Tati Ranftl with the medical bills from her lung transplant. They live in Chesterton, Indiana, but have roots in Alsip.

Her older siblings attended Shepard High School before the family moved.

Her mom explains the ordeal she has endured the past several years.

She was born in southwest suburb of Chicago, but we moved to northwest Indiana back in 2012. Shortly after moving to Indiana she had an incident at school during her gym period. She went to take a drink of water and passed out in the process. I immediately took her to the pediatrician, which I had to search our in network doctors because we had recently moved there and did not have a pediatrician yet. I went through 4 doctors before finding one that could fit in a new patient right away.

During her visit Dr. Mirochna felt uneasy with what had happened to Tati and told me that he was referring her to a pediatric cardiologist and that he was very busy and that it would probably be some time before hearing from him. Now this is how I know that God has been watching over our little girl from the very beginning, by the time Tati and I got home from Mirochna’s office he called me and told me that the cardiologist he referred her to could see her right away. She did pass out one more time before she was seen by her specialist in NY. I will never forget that date. It was March 15, 2012. I was fighting back tears as the specialist told us that she was at a very advanced stage of having a disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and that we would have to put her on the most aggressive infusion meds and that this medication would just give Tati a better quality of life.

She was just three months shy of her 6th birthday and was just beginning to learn how to ride a bike, swim, and all the many things that kids do just being a kid. Tati would not be able to do any of these things and here’s why. In short what it means to have IPAH is that the pressures in your heart and lungs are to high as if you had just finished a high intensity workout and your heart is beating as fast as it can.

Well Tati’s heart would beat fast like this when she was at rest and then when she would exert energy her pressures would go up even more and her heart, especially the right side would pump harder to try to compensate for the pressures being so elevated. Her visits to see her specialist were only supposed to be twice a year and they were for the first couple of years and then she progressively got worse and we were going more like five to six times a year. I should add that we had talked to her doctors about what happens when the medication would no longer work for Tati and we also knew that post diagnosis Phers usually only had about five years before reaching the end, Tati had 9 years.

The doctor told us that when Ph patients reach the end of what can be done via medications, that the last possibility would be to have a lung transplant. The theory here is that having a lung transplant will help repair the heart. Fast forward to January of 2021 Tati’s quality of life was very poor. She was so sick and lethargic that she could barely make it to the bathroom or from room to room. We kept trying to get her into NY to see her specialist by due to COVID was unable to get in because the doctor would cancel on us. We knew something was wrong with Tati so we were able to get her in to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin because we discovered that they have a PH team there as well.

After many months of them trying different things to get Tati better, the consensus was that she had reached to point of her heart being in too poor condition, so they referred her to St. Louis Children’s Hospital for double lung transplant. Our daughter has been through so many procedures and so much pain. It is by the grace of God that she has been able to endure all she’s gone through. Tati came out of surgery at 1:10 am May 25, 2021 and has made and amazingly quick recovery. Two weeks post transplant she was walking on the hospital floor and by June 9, 2021 she was discharged. Tati attends K12 which is an online school because with her last surgery prior to this lung transplant she missed so much school, which really set her behind.

This was back in seventh grade and what kept her from repeating the grade was the fact that she never stopped pressing forward and was able to finish with all A’s on her report card. This lung transplant has had her a little bit behind because mentally she was in a bad place, but just as in Tati style in the. Last two weeks of school while admitted into the hospital, Tati bounced back and caught up on all her late assignments and tests that were passed due. She literally tuned in her last English assignment 20 minutes before they took her down for her lung transplant surgery. She passed with all A’s and one C+. We are so proud of her! She is now entering the 10th grade with new lungs and a bucket list of all the things she was never able to do that she will now be able to do.

I should mention one big thing she had to change because of her new lungs; she always wanted to become a veterinarian but because of the medications she’s now on and the care that she must take with her new lungs, she will not be able to stay on that course. She now what’s to become a doctor. I know she will be a great doctor not only because she is smart, but because she knows first hand what a patient goes through and can give others hope in knowing that if God was there for her and got her through all these things, He can do the same for them.

All donations may be sent to Tom or Vicky Ranftl: 5248 W 121 St, Alsip, Illinois 60803