Josie and Lenna Fight On

04/01/2026

A happy update to share. Lenna had an appointment this week and her blood work was perfect 🙌🏻 She’s doing so good that they decided she no longer needs to take her meds, which she is very excited about. She is only taking extra vitamin D! She also received her first immunization. 💗

03/09/2026

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the memorial fund for Josie. Because of your generosity, we were able to send a donation today to The Fanconi Cancer Foundation in her memory. It means a lot to our family that her memory is being recognized in such a meaningful way. If you would still like to make a contribution to Fanconi Cancer Foundation in memory of Josie you can do so here:

https://fundraise.fanconi.org/give/160689/?_gl=1*1rnvgbp*_ga*MTkyNzcyMzU2OC4xNzczMDgwNDMx*_ga_CCTQYF6KQM*czE3NzMwODEwMTgkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzMwODI0MjEkajU4JGwwJGgw #!/donation/checkout

Please send checks to:
The Fanconi Cancer Foundation
360 E. 10th Ave., Suite 201,
Eugene, OR 97401

02/27/2026

For those who are unable to attend in person, Josie’s service will be available to view via livestream. Saturday, February 28, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. You may use the link below or watch from Grace Community Church page.

💫Livestream Service:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52TgtneGT2Q

💫Obituary & Messages for the Family:

To read Josie’s obituary or leave an online message of support for her family, please visit:

https://www.ppdfuneral.com/obituaries/josie-wendt

Our thoughts and prayers are with all who loved her.

View Josie Wendt's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

02/11/2026

A celebration of Josie’s life will be held at

10:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 28, 2026
at Grace Community Church, 310 E. Eighth Street, Overbrook, KS 66524 where family and friends will gather to honor her beautiful spirit and the joy she brought to the world.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the family’s Zeffy memorial fund, where charitable gifts, scholarships, and future causes meaningful to Josie will be chosen.

All are invited to bring a letter sharing your memories of Josie and words of comfort for her family. These messages will be read privately by the family following the ceremony.

View Josie Wendt's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

02/07/2026

To help ease the burden in the coming days and weeks, please consider using this meal train where you can schedule to drop off a meal or send a gift card to the Wendt family.

Please use the link below for scheduling, drop off instructions, or to purchase a gift card. Thank you all for your compassion and generosity.

The Wendt family of Overbrook, Kansas, is mourning the heartbreaking loss of their daughter, Josie, who passed away on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, due to complications from a bone marrow transplant after a courageous battle with Fanconi Anemia. She showed remarkable strength and bravery beyond her....

01/29/2026

Last night, our beautiful Josie lost her battle. She fought so bravely, with a strength far beyond her years, and our hearts are completely broken.

We want to share our deepest gratitude to all of you for the overwhelming love, prayers, and support you have shown our family throughout this incredibly difficult journey. It’s hard to put into words how thankful we are. We have truly felt every bit of that love, and it has meant more to us than we can ever express.

At this time, we are asking for space as we come together as a family, spend time with our children after months apart, and begin to grieve the loss of our precious daughter.

Please know how deeply grateful we are for each and every one of you.

💔

01/25/2026

Update from Brad:

We wanted to share an update on how Josie is doing.

Josie is currently receiving her third therapeutic plasma exchange treatment. This is treatment is for TAMOF (Thrombocytopenia-Associated Multiple Organ Failure). After yesterday’s treatment, the doctors noted some encouraging improvements in parts of her bloodwork and oxygen levels.

She remains on dialysis to help support her kidneys. Josie is comfortable on her sedation medications and has been resting well over the past 24 hours.

Right now, the doctors’ biggest concern is her lungs. She is on two kinds of breathing machines, which are helping a little bit at a time. The Doctors keep reminding us, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

They have restarted defibrotide at small doses, and so far she appears to be tolerating it well. Some of her liver numbers have shown slight improvement, and the medical team is hopeful that these changes reflect real healing and not false reads from the PLEX machine.

We are incredibly grateful to have had the kids and grandparents visit this past week to be here with Josie and Courtney and me. Huge thank you so much to everyone who helped make that possible. It meant more than we can say.

Josie remains in critical care and continues to need as much support, love, and prayers as possible.

Thank you all!

FROM THE TEAM:
WAYS TO HELP are pinned at the top of their FB page but we will also be including a link at the end of all updates:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALxW24iZk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

01/23/2026

Josie is requiring a little more help than what the ventilator can do, so last night they added a machine that delivers inhaled nitric oxide to her lungs and that has seemed to help out. The ventilator helps her breathe, but her lungs are struggling to get enough oxygen into the blood. Nitric oxide helps the lungs blood vessels open up, improving oxygen levels and making breathing easier for her.

So far nothing has come up positive from her bronchoscopy. Her liver numbers are making pretty big jumps up so they decided to get a bed side CT scan since she’s not stable enough to go down to MRI. The neurosurgen was happy with how her brain CT looked and felt comfortable with restarting the defibrotide. She’s getting her first dose right now which a 1/3 of the normal dose to see how she tolerates it.

They’ve figured out a good sedation regimen for her now and shes more comfortable and even able to nod yes or no when we ask questions, which is great! She still remains in critical condition and needs lots of prayers, especially prayers that the defibrotide will work and not cause any adverse side effects.

FROM THE TEAM:
WAYS TO HELP:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALxW24iZk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

01/21/2026

Josie is finally in a more stable place right now for an update. Her blood pressure is more under control. She had a chest x-ray and it has shown slight improvement on her lungs. Today she had a bronchoscopy and should have results back from that tomorrow. Upon being admitted to the ICU Josie was intubated and will most likely continue to be for the rest of the week. She is also on dialysis. Doctors are hoping to get her in for an MRI tomorrow or Thursday as long as she stays stable enough and depending on those results, they will likely try the defibrotide again. She’s making tiny steps in the right direction, her doctors said they are cautiously optimistic. It’s been a scary and difficult few days.

FROM THE TEAM:
WAYS TO HELP:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALxW24iZk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

01/18/2026

URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS 🙏🏼

Josie is declining quickly. Her liver numbers have gone back up and she is fighting multiple things. She is being moved to ICU. They had to stop the defibrotide for her liver because of adverse reactions. Her kidneys are not working so they are going to start dialysis. Her CT show significant change in her left lung and they’re trying to figure out what’s going on, they think it maybe fungal.

FROM THE TEAM:
WAYS TO HELP:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALxW24iZk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

01/15/2026

Josie’s labs yesterday and today are showing some early signs of trending downward. Liver enzymes are improving. Bilirubin remains high but they have thankfully been trending downward the past 48hrs. She had her right chest tube removed yesterday and also had an echocardiogram that looked good! 🙌🏻 She wasn’t feeling great yesterday, had some vomiting and another fever but seems to be feeling better today.

This remains a serious and slow process, but we’re thankful for every sign of progress. There is power in your prayers and we appreciate them. ❤️

FROM THE TEAM, WAYS TO HELP:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALxW24iZk/?mibextid=wwXIfr

01/14/2026

Update on Josie 💛

Yesterday, Josie went to the OR for a possible drain placement for her left lung. Once she was under anesthesia, the doctors were able to get a better ultrasound and determined that she did not need the drain after all which was great news.

Today, her care team met and feels Josie is in a more stable place at the moment. Because of that, they are continuing to hold off on starting defibrotide and are instead running a few more tests while watching her closely and continuing the careful risk benefit analysis in treating her VOD and monitoring her brain bleed.

They are doing a total bile acids (TBA) test to help show how well her liver is functioning. They drew a baseline level and will repeat the test in a couple days to see which direction it’s trending. If the number goes down or stays stable, they’ll continue to wait. If it rises, they will start defibrotide.

Unfortunately, Josie did test positive again for HHV-6. They want that number under 500, and hers is currently 26,000. Because of this, they’ve started her on foscarnet to treat the virus. This medication is tough because it requires careful fluid management, which is challenging since she is already retaining a lot of fluid but necessary for her as well.

On a very positive note, her chimerism results came back showing 99.3% donor cells, which is absolutely incredible news and means the transplant itself is working beautifully.

Another encouraging update: her right chest tube will be removed, as it is no longer draining fluid.

Most importantly, Josie has been doing well mentally. She’s been more alert, positive, and even spending time on her phone which has been such a welcome and encouraging change.

Brad and Courtney want to thank everyone for the continued love, prayers, and support. They truly could not get through this without all of you. The community surrounding Josie right now has been amazing, and it means more than words can say.

FROM THE TEAM, WAYS TO HELP:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALxW24iZk/?mibextid=wwXIfr