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Overcast West Hempstead High School alumna’s fight for a new heart continues
When the Herald spoke to West Hempstead resident Jessica Venditto last November, she was on the waiting list for a new, healthy heart. She was removed from the list in April, however, when she was diagnosed with liver cancer.
“It’s just another obstacle,” Venditto said with a grin. “I wasn’t expecting it, of course, but it’s just a part of my journey.”
The 24-year-old says her motto remains, “Every day is a great day,” even though most days are a battle to stay alive.
Venditto was born with pulmonary atresia, a rare disease in which the pulmonary valve on the right side of the heart, which controls blood flow to the lungs, doesn’t develop. She had her first open-heart surgery when she was 5 five days old, at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Although it was successful, she went on to have four more operations.
Her parents, Debbie and Mike Venditto, said that doctors in New York thought her most recent surgery, in 2010, was especially risky, because she has only one functioning lung — her left one was punctured during a previous surgery. The Vendittos worked with doctors at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, who performed the 14-hour surgery successfully.
“We were just shocked, as parents,” Debbie said. “It might sound crazy for me to say this, but we truly believe that God gave this to her for a reason. As we say, everything happens for a reason.”
Jessica spent eight months in Chicago, in the hope of having a heart transplant at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital. But once she was removed from the waiting list due to her liver cancer, she moved back to West Hempstead in May, and is now being treated at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.
Her mother, who left her job as a nanny to be with her in Chicago, started working again when they returned to New York. Jessica, a 2014 graduate of West Hempstead High School, had been taking online courses at Nassau Community College to earn a degree in medical billing, and returning to West Hempstead allowed her to attend classes, which she said helped to normalize her life.
“Being with my classmates and hanging out with my friends was a big lift for me,” said Jessica, who expects to graduate from NCC with an associate’s degree in December. “I also get to spend more time with my sisters and my family, so it’s good to be home.”
Her doctors told her that based on her most recent CAT scan, in August, her condition had improved: The lesions on her liver hadn’t grown. She will have another scan sometime next month, and once she is treated for the liver cancer, she will move back to Chicago — and be added once again to the heart transplant list.
“I’ve been through so much already, so I don’t worry about it too much,” she said. “Plus, it’s easy to stay positive with all of my family’s support leading me on and always being there for me.”
Her mother said that once a new heart is found for Jessica, she hopes to raise awareness of the importance of becoming an organ donor. In Chicago, she and Jessica saw several children in a hospital intensive care unit who died because of a lack of organ donations.
“A family has to lose their child for mine to live,” Debbie said. “People ask me when’s the date of her heart transplant, but I won’t know, because a tragedy has to happen to another family’s child to save another person.”
“If more people were aware of becoming a donor, they wouldn’t have to wait that long,” Jessica said, adding that one organ donor can save as many as nine lives. “I hope that my journey can inspire people to become donors.”
Debbie’s longtime friend Dawn D’Agostino-Posporelis started a GoFundMe page in 2017 to support the Venditto family. As of press time, it had raised more than $42,000 of its $50,000 goal. To contribute, go to bit.ly/2D44Lnz.
