Give up your junk car for a good cause

Young heart transplant survivor faces new challenges

By SANDY LONG

BARRYVILLE, NY — Got an old vehicle rotting away in the back yard? Now you can get rid of it, as a community business rallies to help one of its young members.

Fourteen-year-old Emily Grimm, who underwent an emergency heart transplant in September 2006, was making a good recovery following surgery. But Grimm’s progress took an unexpected turn when she began experiencing shortness of breath and increasing muscular weakness.

Grimm’s doctors began to wonder if something else was involved and a muscle biopsy confirmed their suspicion: Grimm is afflicted with a rare neuromuscular disease known as myofibrillar myopathy—a group of skeletal muscle diseases that are frequently associated with the heart muscle. Identified only as recently as 1996, the disease is little understood and believed to be a life-long condition for which there is currently no treatment.

For Grimm, whose muscles contain clusters of irregular fibers, the latest manifestation of the disease is affecting her pulmonary muscles, making breathing ever more difficult.

Recently, the teen was faced with the need to undergo a tracheotomy to improve the flow of oxygen into her body. That procedure occurred on March 2 and Grimm is learning to manage the care associated with this change.

Currently homebound, Grimm uses a wheelchair and hopes to soon receive an electric scooter to enable her to move about more effectively. Two family friends are helping Grimm’s father, Bob, to build a ramp leading into the house for the young woman.

“She’s a bit down and depressed right now,” said her father, “but she wants to fight this.” Grimm is hoping to attend a summer camp sponsored by the Muscular Dystrophy Association this year.

Not surprisingly, Grimm’s family is struggling to pay medical expenses not covered by insurance. Friends at D and R Auto Repair have figured out how they can help, and are inviting people with junk cars to donate them for the cause.

According to D and R’s Pat Lauer, the Barryville repair shop will tow away junkers at no cost to their owners. A portion of the scrap proceeds will be donated to Grimm’s family to help defray mounting medical bills. Vehicles must not contain household trash and should be located within a 35-mile radius of the Barryville area in both New York and Pennsylvania. For more information or to schedule a vehicle for towing, call Lauer or Terry DeGroat at 845/557-8881.

In addition, a fund was established following Grimm’s heart transplant in the fall. The family has repeatedly turned to the fund as needed and Grimm’s father expressed his family’s sincere gratitude to the community for its generosity. “I can’t thank this community enough for everything they’ve done for Emily,” said Bob, who cited the cards, flowers, gifts and money that have come from friends and strangers and helped the family to cope.

The fund remains open at the Eldred branch of the First National Bank of Jeffersonville. Checks should be made payable to “The Fund for Emily Grimm.”