Obama responds to student’s need

Plan for the worst, but hope for the best. That's the philosophy Lori L. has lived by since she was diagnosed with an incurable liver disease in 2007. Without a transplant, she will die. But a letter sent to President Obama from a Gonzaga professor has given her new hope.

Lori isn't a stranger to overcoming life's obstacles.

"I came here with my boys about six years ago when they were 6 and 9. I came with my Isuzu Trooper packed with what we had. A TV, clothes and personal things and my boys' toys. We were domestic violence victims," Lori said.

Lori said she was abused by her second husband. After four years of marriage, a friend convinced her to leave. At the time, Lori was running a catering business. Her husband was from a prominent family in her small hometown.

According to Lori, when she told the police chief about the domestic abuse, he told her, "You know, Lori, you just have to learn not to piss him off."

"It was time to go," Lori said. "So I called my first husband. His parents just bought a house in Liberty Lake that they wouldn't be occupying for a year. They sent me the key. I had a way out."

On Valentine's Day 2005, she dropped her husband off at work, picked up her boys at school and left town.

Lori settled into her new life and started going to school again at the age of 35 with hopes of becoming a teacher.

After finishing her core classes at Spokane Community College, she transferred to Gonzaga University as a junior in 2007.

Just as her life was slowly coming back together, she was faced with yet another danger.  

After visiting Sacred Heart Medical Center in winter 2007 due to severe abdominal pains, doctors discovered Lori had cirrhosis of the liver, a nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

"I was overwhelmed. I thought, this is crazy. I was in the middle of fall semester feeling fatigued and emotionally overwhelmed," she said.

After taking a two-month leave of absence, Lori returned to school for spring semester. And that's when she met professor Ken Bubb.

"I had him for a class. We were reading classic Latin literature and then we had to write a response about how to apply what we read to everyday life. It was like journal writing. It was therapeutic," she said. "I wrote this paper and talked about how the definition of hope for me was changing. I wrote that I was sick. He approached me after class and asked what was going on and told me I couldn't give up hope, that I had too much to live for."

Lori decided she wanted to leave a legacy and started an e-mail group, where she would share her writing, encouraging women and helping them to remain hopeful during difficult times.

"I want my legacy to be encouragement and hope, because I was getting so buried," she said. "My writing has just become so therapeutic. I use it to get through the stresses of chronic illness, the doubts and fears that I have, wondering if I'll see my children go to college, or get married, or see my grandchildren."

Since Lori wasn't getting the answers she needed during her doctor's appointments, Bubb helped set up a donation account on Gonzaga's campus and raised enough money for Lori to see another doctor.     

In summer 2009, Lori found a liver specialist at Deaconess Medical Center who confirmed that she did have the disease and that she does need a transplant. The base cost for the procedure is $500,000. There are more than 100,000 people who currently need transplants.

After Bubb retired, his son Daniel, also a professor at Gonzaga, made another attempt to help Lori. In June 2010, Daniel Bubb wrote a letter to President Obama explaining Lori's situation.

"I just got the sense that it wasn't going anywhere, so I was trying to think through different ideas," Bubb said. "I figured I'd send it and see what happens, we've got nothing to lose."

About three months later, Bubb got a call from the director at the Center for Medicine and Medicaid.

"It was a surprise, honestly, because it was a long shot. I didn't expect the letter to get to his desk," he said.

Lori now has an appointment on Sept. 13 at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, where she will get blood work done and have the opportunity to discuss the transplant process with doctors. All expenses will be covered.

"People shower me with praise but we're here to help students. Not just to share knowledge but to help them and that's part of the wonderful benefit of teaching," he said. "Sometimes we think that the president is too busy, that he's never going to see your letter. But never say never. When you're in a situation such as Lori's, you never know what can happen."

Lori believes there is a lot to be learned from her story.

"I want people to know that it doesn't matter how dark it gets. There is always hope," she said. "There is always a silver lining."