Article in the Chicago Sun-Times

Jessica Cowin, 25, of Northbrook, needs a kidney transplant. Not extraordinary, except that she got a new heart 10 years ago. Jessica’s sister, Amy, has managed her medical care for years. Also not extraordinary, except the tenacious mother hen is only 22.

“Under hospital privacy policies, you can only have one other contact. For Jessica, it’s me,” Amy said.

Managing her only sibling’s care includes serving as kidney donor and raising $24,000 in just over a week — through an Internet plea — after being told Jessica had to qualify for Medicaid before Northwestern Memorial Hospital would do the procedure.

Qualification can take months. Amy applied for Medicaid, but worried about waiting, she found GiveForward.org, a start-up Website providing an online fund-raising venue for any legitimate cause.

Her HelpJess page, at www.giveforward.org/helpjess, immediately set a record, and got publicity.

“Most of the donations came in small increments of $10 to $25 from young people around the country on Twitter and Facebook,” GiveForward co-founder Ethan Austin noted. “It’s pretty amazing.”

Northwestern has now lifted the Medicaid stipulation and scheduled the transplant for April 2nd.

That’s because Jessica’s condition worsened, spokeswoman Kris Lathan said. Amy thinks it has more to do with media attention.

The transplant runs upward of $100,000. Jessica’s current insurance pays a maximum of $30,000.

“We learned in November she was at end stage renal failure,” Amy said. “In January, I tested to make sure I was a match.”

Jessica first has to undergo a process to remove extra antibodies due to myriad blood transfusions, to lower her body’s risk of rejection.

Boasting the nation’s largest living donor kidney transplant program, Northwestern is one of two area hospitals offering the cutting-edge desensitization procedure.

But after the sisters completed prep procedures, the hospital said they’d have to wait on Medicaid.

“It is our policy to not proceed with transplant when patients have inadequate insurance coverage or have no avenue to cover the cost of the immunosuppressive medications,” a March 2 letter explained.

“Suddenly, everything comes to a complete stop,” said Jessica. “I was in shock. But Amy got working.”

Amy directed donations to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA). It accepts funds for families, who then pay transplant expenses and seek reimbursement. Funds unused go to other families.

When Jessica ended up in Northwestern’s emergency room on March 3, Amy shared her story with the hospital’s patient rep. Within hours, she was informed the transplant was to proceed.

“I want to make it perfectly clear money was never a deciding factor,” Lathan said. “At the time she was referred into our transplant center, she had stable kidney functions. She was told to wait, get into the system. But as her health became of great concern, her physicians decided not to wait. It was Monday when the team met and the decision was made to transplant her with financial assistance pending. It was Tuesday she came into the E.R.”

Jessica is currently on dialysis.

“I’m so happy we’re finally going to get it over with,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without Amy.”

Said Amy: “I love her more than anybody in the world. I just want her to be o.k.”