SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — A South Jordan mother is asking for the community’s continued support as her 19-year-old daughter undergoes a rare and life-changing surgery hundreds of miles from home.
“The surgery is going to give her her life back,” mother Heidi Jensen told FOX 13 News on Tuesday. Her daughter Mikan Jensen, 19, has spent much of her teenage life in and out of hospitals, dealing with Type 1 diabetes and Crohn’s disease.
In 2023, she said she was diagnosed with chronic pediatric pancreatitis—a rare and painful disease. “It’s taken a huge toll on our family,” Jensen said. “I’m a single mom with three awesome kids. It was a huge fight to get here.”
After months of waiting, Mikan is finally receiving surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The procedure is called TPIAT (total pancreatectomy with islet auto-transplant), and her recovery will keep her in Ohio for at least a month, Jensen said.
“She’s a regular college kid, she gets so jealous of kids who are like, 'Oh, school, she would love to go to school. She missed a lot of high school,” Jensen said.
After recovering in the ICU, her mom said they’re staying at a Ronald McDonald House Charities in Ohio. “She had to withdraw from college. She can’t work. It’s just a lot of nausea, a lot of pain,” Jensen said. “She wants to be an EMT. She wants to go to culinary school. But you can’t do that if you’re stuck in your mom’s basement on meds.”
A GoFundMe has been established to help cover the costs of housing, travel, and lost wages during their stay in Ohio.
Jensen said that so far, the South Jordan community and others have helped raise more than $11,000. “It’s been overwhelming in the best way,” Jensen said. “We’re just so grateful.”
