在等待肝臟移植時，她讓家人做好了最壞的打算

在等待肝臟移植時，她讓家人做好了最壞的打算

Erika Zak and her family moved across the country more than a year ago to be near the Cleveland Clinic. They wanted to be ready at a moment's notice for a liver transplant that could save her life.

Erika Zak和她的家人在一年多前搬到了克利夫蘭診所附近。他們希望能在接到進(jìn)行肝臟移植手術(shù)通知的那一刻做好準(zhǔn)備，挽救她的生命。

She and her husband, Scott Powers, thought the move would last three months, maybe five. That she would get a new liver and begin the slow process of recovery. Instead, The opposite is true.

她和丈夫斯科特·鮑爾斯原以為搬家會持續(xù)三個月，或許五個月。她將得到一個新的肝臟，開始緩慢的恢復(fù)過程。相反，現(xiàn)實相反。

"We've been waiting and waiting and waiting," says Erika, 39. "I'm losing hope that I will ever get a liver."

39歲的Erika說:“我們一直在等待，等待，等待。”“我正在失去獲得肝臟的希望。”

Her skin peels off. Her legs, hips and feet swell to the point it feels "like I'm carrying an extra person on me."

她的皮膚脫落了。她的腿、臀部和腳腫脹到感覺“我身上多了一個人”的程度。

Five years ago, after her initial cancer diagnosis, she wrote to her newborn daughter, Loie, that she hoped to be around "to tell you this story has a happy ending." She survived cancer, but surgery to remove two tumors went terribly wrong and severely damaged her liver. The conversations with her daughter have grown more sobering.

五年前，在她最初被診斷出患有癌癥之后，她給剛出生的女兒洛寫信說，她希望能和她在一起，“告訴你這個故事有一個幸福的結(jié)局。”她在癌癥中幸存了下來，但是切除兩個腫瘤的手術(shù)出了嚴(yán)重的問題，嚴(yán)重?fù)p害了她的肝臟。她和女兒的談話變得越來越發(fā)人深省。

CNN first reported on Erika's case on Mother's Day in 2018. Her saga then was a battle with UnitedHealthcare after the insurance giant denied her coverage for a transplant. Desperate, the young mother penned a plea directly to the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, David Wichmann.

CNN在2018年母親節(jié)第一次報道了Erika的案例。當(dāng)時，她的傳奇故事是在保險巨頭聯(lián)合醫(yī)療拒絕為她的移植提供保險后，與這家公司展開的一場戰(zhàn)斗。絕望之下，這位年輕的母親直接向聯(lián)合健康集團(tuán)(UnitedHealth Group)首席執(zhí)行官大衛(wèi)提出請求。

As the months passed, CNN readers, concerned about Erika's health, wrote asking about her condition and implored the network to do a follow-up story.

幾個月過去了，CNN的讀者擔(dān)心艾麗卡的健康狀況，紛紛寫信詢問她的病情，并懇求CNN做一個后續(xù)報道。

Erika wasn't ready to talk. She chose to remain quiet for the last 15 months, almost resolved to her fate -- whatever it might be. But a recent note from a friend stirred up her fight again.

Erika 不準(zhǔn)備談?wù)?。在過去的15個月里，她選擇了保持沉默，幾乎下定了決心——不管結(jié)果如何。但最近一個朋友的便條再次使她燃起了斗志。

Her friend told her he was at rock bottom five years ago when he read her blog about her cancer battle. "He snapped out of it and is flourishing now," she says.

她的朋友告訴她，五年前，當(dāng)他讀到她寫的關(guān)于與癌癥抗?fàn)幍牟┛蜁r，他的心情跌到了谷底。她說:“他突然振作起來，現(xiàn)在很成功。”

"That kind of lit a fire under me to say, 'OK, I'm going to do one more push. I'm going to try one more time to get the word out to try to get my liver." She turned to Twitter last Sunday and wrote her first tweet: "And I still wait. Time is running out."

“這就像點燃了我內(nèi)心的火焰，告訴我，‘好吧，我要再試一次。我要再試一次，把這個消息傳出去，得到我的肝臟。”上周日，她在推特上寫下了自己的第一條推文:“我仍然在等待。時間不多了。”

For her loved ones, the red tape has added to the pain of seeing her suffer. Her twin sister, Jenna Zak, posted a photograph on Instagram of Erika sprawled on a hospital bed, tubes and IVs hooked up to her seemingly everywhere.

對于她所愛的人來說，繁文縟節(jié)增加了看到她受苦的痛苦。她的雙胞胎妹妹詹娜·扎克在Instagram上發(fā)布了一張照片，照片中埃里卡四肢伸開躺在病床上，身上似乎到處都掛著管子和靜脈注射器。

"This is the photo I took of my sister after she almost bled to death due to her liver failure," Jenna wrote Wednesday, tagging UNOS public relations in the post. "Do you take this into account when you deny her points? Do you factor in she coughs up cups of blood because her liver is failing?"

詹娜于本周三在郵件中寫道:“這是我妹妹因肝功能衰竭差點失血過多而死亡后，我給她拍的一張照片。”“當(dāng)你否定她的觀點時，你會考慮到這一點嗎?”你有沒有考慮到她因為肝臟衰竭而咳出幾杯血?”