Benefit show May 6th Bayside Grange Hall

Hey folks, just a quick note to say The Hitch will be playing a bennefit show for Miranda Kelly at the Bayside Grange with four other bands on May 6th. The article below from the Arcata Eye explains her situation...

Rare disease claims Miranda's breath – April 11, 2006

Jesse Alm
Eye Glances Editor

ARCATA - “We’ve all learned that life is precious,” said Marilyn Kelly, whose 21-year old daughter Miranda Kelly was diagnosed with the extremely rare congenital lobar emphysema in February 2004. Miranda, a student at College of the Redwoods, has a 24 percent breathing capacity and is now unable to perform any of the physical activities that once were an enormous part of her life.

Miranda Kelly
Miranda has always had trouble breathing, but doctors always simply wrote it off as a bad case of asthma. It isn’t surprising that the true disease was not considered, since only one in 1.5 million individuals has it. After six separate misdiagnoses, in January she spent a week at UCLA.

“We can’t really go on family vacations anymore,” she said. Even after insurance, the medical bills are “astronomical.”

On top of everything, the surgery was not a permanent cure. Ultimately her lung will have to be replaced - at a cost of about $250,000 – and this introduces an entirely new struggle to be at the right place at the right time. A donor lung must be transferred within four to six hours of the donor’s death, and since Miranda is prone to a collapsed lung, doctors told her she cannot fly in an airplane.

Fortunately, UCLA has the shortest waiting list on the west coast, and Miranda’s age and size make her a “good candidate,” meaning that her chances of getting a lung in the next year are promising. She is healthy, and doctors have faith that the operation will be successful.

“I’m still trying to live a relatively normal life. There’s a lot of hope; [with] so many advancements in technology, I have confidence that I’ll be okay.”The community has already offered moral support to the Kelly family. “It has just made me fall in love with where I live even more,” said Marilyn Kelly, Miranda’s mother.

Community members will have another opportunity to support Miranda’s family on Saturday, May 6 at 6 p.m. at the Bayside Grange. There will be food, an auction and raffle and five bands will perform. Miranda says she plans to begin hosting monthly events to benefit the United Network for Organ Sharing and support others waiting for organs.

Miranda’s situation has opened her eyes to how important organ donation is. She pointed out that she is one of 93,000 people waiting for organs in the United States.

“It’s so easy to be an organ donor,” she said. “It takes less than a minute, and it is one of the most rewarding things a person can do. One person can improve the lives of seventy people.”

Those interested in being organ donors should register at Donatelifecalifornia.org or CTDN.org.