Gift of Caring

[Lone Gunman]

Community gives gift of caring

It's going to be a very Merry Christmas for one Lake Havasu City family.

Every year the Tri-State Pageant Royalty, Miss Lake Havasu and Miss Mohave County, adopt a family for Christmas - this year the adoption is for a set of triplets and their mother, Crystal Harvey, who suffers from a blood disease.

“When I was pregnant I was diagnosed with HELLP Syndrome, and it's been a struggle ever since,” said Harvey.

According to the HELLP Syndrome Society, the disorder is a unique variant of preeclampsia (toxemia), which can be fatal to both the mother and the baby.


Though the triplets are doing well, Harvey is living through this disease that has caused her to lapse into comas. She goes to the hospital three days a week for dialysis, which saps her energy.

Recognizing the hardship of the family, the Pageant Royalty as well as the community stepped in to make this a special holiday, buying gifts, cleaning house and stringing Christmas lights for the children and their mother.

Meanwhile, Harvey continues her struggles with the syndrome.

HELLP was named by Louis Weinstein in 1982 after its characteristics: H stands for Hemolysis, which is the breaking down of red blood cells, EL is elevated liver enzymes and LP is the low platelet count.

After learning about her high blood pressure during pregnancy, Harvey knew right away that something wasn't right.

“I was just playing around with a blood pressure machine and mine registered at 220 over 160. I knew this wasn't normal,” said Harvey.

According to Harvey, the syndrome is caused by a pregnancy with multiple births.

“I was just worried the babies would be okay, I wasn't worried about myself,” she said. “I went in to the hospital and the doctors tried everything to stop my labor, the next day I had a caesarean. Everything was fine and I was put into recovery.”

Doctors then noticed a blood clot the size of a baseball from the birth. “After this was discovered, I found out I had the HELLP Syndrome, causing all vitals in the body to fail from the blood disease. I then went into a coma for 63 days, had vital failure and after blood transfusions, my kidneys never came back,” she said.

According to Harvey, after a blast of strep throat, she was back into a coma for two weeks. “I had the choice to die from the strep throat or lose a kidney,” she said. “My mom was tested and she was able to give a kidney me. After the transplant, I had a stroke, but then everything was fine.”

Two years later, Harvey is back on the kidney transplant list.

“It could take three to seven years to get a kidney right now. My only choice is to stay on dialysis and use a catheter,” Harvey said.

Spending four hours a day, three days a week at dialysis, Harvey doesn't have time to prepare for a special Christmas with her triplets.

“Last time I was on dialysis I lost all my hair and it's starting to happen again. I'm really tired and it's really been hard on my body,” said Harvey. “I just can't do as much as I'd like for the holidays.”

“After seeing what the family goes through, they deserve a special Christmas together,” said Laura Sibley, the pageant's adopt a family organizer.

“We had a bake sale and also sold mistletoe during the boat parade and earned over $900 to spend on the family. The pageant moms went shopping in Vegas to buy gifts for the family,” said Laura Sibley, adopt a family organizer.

According to Sibley, a few of the mothers put up the money to buy three new battery operated jeeps for the kids to ride, cleaned Harvey's house and strung Christmas lights outside and put up a tree while Harvey was last hospitalized.

The Tri State Pageant Royalty will be delivering gifts to the family tonight, with Santa Clause and all.

“It's going to be a great Christmas. It's amazing what everyone has done for me and I can't wait to see how my kids react,” said Harvey.