Hardy-Hurley Benefit July 8

Correction: The roast beef dinner and silent auction will be from 5pm to 8pm and a live auction will begin at 8pm on July 8 at the Waterhole in Fairview, MT.

Original story follows:

Alyxandra Hurley was diagnosed with an extremely rare medical disorder, Idiopathic Pulmonary Hemosiderosis, when she was 15 months old. More than twenty years later, Alyxandra – known to her friends and family as Alyx – has received an important and long-awaited medical procedure. She received new lungs on Saturday.

Hurley, formerly Hardy, is married to local farmer, Timothy, of Fairview. Timothy and Alyx were married in December of 2016. Shortly before the wedding, Alyx was told that she could wait three or so years before a lung transplant would be necessary, but by March her medical prognosis had changed.

This medical crisis was worsened by the unwillingness of the Mayo Clinic to consider Alyx for a lung transplant because Idiopathic Pulmonary Hemosiderosis is an immune disorder, which means that there is no guarantee the lungs will be accepted by her body in the long term. This more pessimistic medical assessment is due to Alyx's diagnosis being so rare that there has been an inadequate evaluation of transplant success. In fact, when Alyx was first diagnosed, she was only the first such case ever seen by the Denver Children's Hospital.

Alyx's mother, Sherri Hardy, explained to the Roundup, "When [Alyx] was diagnosed, this was such a rare disease that she was the first person they had seen in Denver Children's Hospital with the diagnosis. Now, all this time later, she was denied lungs by Mayo Clinic because it is an auto-immune disease, meaning it won't go away just because she has new lungs. They don't know necessarily if this will work forever."

Hardy continued, "The reason Mayo didn't want to [consider her for a transplant] is because they couldn't guarantee life-long results, but that's precisely why Phoenix St. Joseph took her. They were eager to see how someone with her diagnosis will do with the transplant."

While speaking from Alyx's hospital room where she was recovering well from surgery, Hardy explained that the surgery went well, saying, "It went really well, and it was definitely time and she got a really good set of lungs. We had asked for before and after pictures of both the old and new lungs, and it's remarkable. Because of her small stature, the donor had to be a child. We're very thankful."

Hardy explained how kind people back home had been. Timothy's brother, Ty, has been operating their farm, which has been a real benefit to the couple. Other friends in the community decided to host a benefit for the medical expenses incurred by Alyx in her transplant and what is anticipated to be a six-month recovery.

Hardy said, "The fundraiser is being hosted by a group of ladies in Fairview. We're thankful for all the people back home who care."

The Alyxandra Hardy Hurley Benefit Dinner and Auction will be held at the Waterhole in Fairview on July 8. A silent auction will be held from 5pm to 8pm, with a roast beef dinner beginning at 8pm. The dinner will have a free-will donation. There will also be live music during the event for participants to enjoy.

A benefit account has also been set up at Stockman Bank in Sidney, under the name of Alyxandra Hurley Benefit.

 

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