DENVER — A local teenager is fighting for her life, waiting for a life-saving heart transplant. Courtney Doell was just 18 months old when she was first diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.
Her father, Sheldon, said, “for whatever reason, it went right to her heart muscle. And weakened her heart muscle and we really almost lost her then 18 months old, was a miracle, by the grace of god she lived.. she recovered rapidly, had normal childhood.”
Courtney grew into a normal, active teenager, until the beginning of the school year when she got sick again.
Her mom, Shilo said, “doctors told us most kids don’t make it to age 3 or 5. That was really hard to hear, so at age 5 she was on no meds, I thought ‘great we are done, don’t have to worry about this anymore.’ That wasn’t the case. She got a cold it never really went away, turned into pneumonia.”
The virus attacked her heart and doctors told her parents the damage was irreversible. She would need a heart transplant.
Courtney has spent the past 10 weeks at Children’s Hospital of Colorado, getting stable enough to be placed on the transplant list. Sheldon said, “The fact she is now listed on the transplant list as a1 meaning a priority, means she needs a new heart.”
It’s an emotional time for the Doell family. Shilo said, “it’s not an easy decision, but I don’t feel like we have a decision. You want your child to live, getting all the information about a transplant is completely overwhelming.
The hugest part of this is you have to have a donor to give their organs up. That’s such a gracious gift from a family. So what needs to happen now is an offer needs to be made, which means someone needs to say they are willing to donate an organ.” They say there is no way to adequately thank the person who will give Courtney a second chance at life.
The Doell’s need financial help. They have other children, and Shilo hasn’t been able to work since Courtney has been in the hospital. Sheldon is a Denver police officer, who works all day and spends his nights at the hospital with Courtney.
Sheldon said, “it’s hard, we were reluctant initially to do this. We as police officers are the ones usually helping people. Sometimes it’s hard to accept help, but you get to the point where you could probably use some additional resources and some help, you have to bury your pride and understand it’s ok to ask for help and receive it if it is there.”
They want to pay it forward and help raise awareness about the importance of being an organ donor. Shilo said, “we need someone to be gracious enough to say they want to donate their organs, and that doesn’t just help our situation, it helps so many other families.”
And she wants people to have conversations with their loved ones, before tragedy strikes. She said, “When you’re in your right mind and there’s no drama, nothing tragic going on, it’s easy to say, ‘this is what I would want’, and your family understands it. Someone may see this story and say, yeah I would want to be a donor and their family might say really I never knew that. It may not be on their driver’s license, but their family will know their wishes. That one donor can save 8 lives, not just one life.”
Their faith is strong, and that is helping them through this difficult time. But they ask for continued prayers. Shilo said, “We’ve had our church praying for us, our pastor, the youth pastor and his wife came to visit her, our family we are very faith based. We need financial support, we most importantly need prayers and the support of our family and friends.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Doell Family.
For more information about Children’s Hospital of Colorado’s Pediatric Heart Transplant program visit their website.