Hundreds rally to help Gentrie Hansen with hope, money

I had no idea what I was getting into when I wrote about Gentrie Hansen, the girl across the street. But two weeks and hundreds of calls and e-mails and donations later, I have a news flash: People are good.

You don't know what it's been like around here lately, watching what's happening across the street. It's like the closing scene from the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." Friends, neighbors, business associates and even strangers have turned up with donations and offers of help. One evening there were dozens of people in their driveway and yard to prepare for a fundraiser. It didn't matter that these are hard times. All that mattered was one little girl.

You remember the story of my sweet little neighbor girl, 14-year-old Gentrie Hansen? She hasn't been able to eat or drink anything since December. She has gastroparesis — paralysis of the stomach. She is starving in the land of plenty, the land of McDonald's and Chuck-A-Rama, the land of obesity. She has withered away from 112 pounds to 88.

Apparently, a virus attacked nerves and shut down her stomach — permanently.

Anything she eats gets the return-to-sender treatment immediately. She is living off fluids pumped into her arm, but it's no way to live. She wants to eat so badly that she chews food and then spits it out. When the family ate dinner, she ran to her room in tears, shut the door and opened the window so she didn't have to smell food. Her family finally closed the kitchen in their home and began eating in the closet or the basement, secretly.

Doctors tried everything to fix her; nothing worked. There was one final medical procedure that might help — the insertion of a pacemaker in her stomach — but the costs were staggering and the insurance company refused to cover the surgery. The family needs money desperately. They were selling possessions just to collect cash, including the family boat.

That's what I wrote two weeks ago, and ever since then people have responded.

And now Gentrie is in an Ohio hospital. Through donations and fundraisers and a home equity loan, the family was able to collect enough money to make a down payment for the surgery, which enabled them to move up the date of the procedure.

A temporary (exterior) pacemaker was attached to her stomach early Tuesday morning. Dissatisfied with the results, the surgeon planned a second procedure later in the day. After that, family and friends will hold their breath the next few days to see if the pacemaker stops the chronic vomiting and allows her to eat again. If it does, a permanent pacemaker will be installed in her stomach.