From Tatiana's mom:

On Thursday, April 9th, I brought my daughter, 21-year-old Tatiana Moore, to Kenmore Mercy Hospital with symptoms of shortness of breath. She was diagnosed with COVID19 and bilateral pneumonia. She was immediately transferred to Buffalo’s COVID hospital at St. Joesph’s. With COVID and associated pneumonia superimposed on her history of asthma, her lungs were failing and it quickly became obvious that she would require the support of the ventilator.

We had the opportunity to talk to her one last time before she was placed on the vent. We told her she was a fighter and that she was the strongest person we knew. We showered her with love and prayers in hopes that we could get her home soon.

Despite aggressive measures and full ventilator support, she was still failing to maintain adequate oxygen levels. On April 14th, the decision was made to transport her to South Mercy Hospital where she would be put on an ECMO circuit. We were told that the trip between hospitals would be very risky, but ECMO would be the only option to improve her oxygenation. In simple terms, Tatiana’s blood is filtered through the ECMO machine which oxygenates the blood and removes carbon dioxide before filtering back into the body.

The ECMO did successfully improve oxygen levels, but did not help her lungs to heal. It became clear that the coronavirus had caused permanent damage to her lungs. Her pulmonology team made the decision to get in contact with the Cleveland Clinic to consider Tatiana for a double lung transplant. They accepted her into their program, and May 14th she was flown from Buffalo to Cleveland. She is still not strong enough to be on the transplant list because she is heavily sedated and is very weak. Her team in Cleveland works on her every day to slowly get her off sedation, and physical therapy works on her muscles five days a week. Once she can get off sedation and is strong enough, she will be officially listed for transplant. That is the day for which we currently hope and pray.

When the plan moves forward for transplant, we will need to relocate to Cleveland for at least two months, which is the standard post-transplant protocol. The journey has already been long, but the road stretches far ahead of us, and are ready to march down this path with Tatiana. Our girl is a fighter, and she is in the fight of her life. With our faith and the endless support we have received, we know that nothing is impossible. Together, as 🥊TeamTatiana🥊, we will win this fight.