在等待肝脏移植时，她让家人做好了最坏的打算

在等待肝脏移植时，她让家人做好了最坏的打算

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兰诊所附近。他们希望能在接到进行肝脏移植手术通知的那一刻做好准备，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·鲍尔斯原以为搬家会持续三个月，或许五个月。她将得到一个新的肝脏，开始缓慢的恢复过程。相反，现实相反。

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

39岁的Erika说:“我们一直在等待，等待，等待。”“我正在失去获得肝脏的希望。”

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

她的皮肤脱落了。她的腿、臀部和脚肿胀到感觉“我身上多了一个人”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，在她最初被诊断出患有癌症之后，她给刚出生的女儿洛写信说，她希望能和她在一起，“告诉你这个故事有一个幸福的结局。”她在癌症中幸存了下来，但是切除两个肿瘤的手术出了严重的问题，严重损害了她的肝脏。她和女儿的谈话变得越来越发人深省。

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年母亲节第一次报道了Erika的案例。当时，她的传奇故事是在保险巨头联合医疗拒绝为她的移植提供保险后，与这家公司展开的一场战斗。绝望之下，这位年轻的母亲直接向联合健康集团(UnitedHealth Group)首席执行官大卫提出请求。

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.

几个月过去了，CNN的读者担心艾丽卡的健康状况，纷纷写信询问她的病情，并恳求CNN做一个后续报道。

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 不准备谈论。在过去的15个月里，她选择了保持沉默，几乎下定了决心——不管结果如何。但最近一个朋友的便条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.

她的朋友告诉她，五年前，当他读到她写的关于与癌症抗争的博客时，他的心情跌到了谷底。她说:“他突然振作起来，现在很成功。”

"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."

“这就像点燃了我内心的火焰，告诉我，‘好吧，我要再试一次。我要再试一次，把这个消息传出去，得到我的肝脏。”上周日，她在推特上写下了自己的第一条推文:“我仍然在等待。时间不多了。”

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.

对于她所爱的人来说，繁文缛节增加了看到她受苦的痛苦。她的双胞胎妹妹詹娜·扎克在Instagram上发布了一张照片，照片中埃里卡四肢伸开躺在病床上，身上似乎到处都挂着管子和静脉注射器。

"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?"

詹娜于本周三在邮件中写道:“这是我妹妹因肝功能衰竭差点失血过多而死亡后，我给她拍的一张照片。”“当你否定她的观点时，你会考虑到这一点吗?”你有没有考虑到她因为肝脏衰竭而咳出几杯血?”