Liver transplant recipient gifted dachshund for her Make-A-Wish

In our hardest moments what many of us need to get through is our family. That's what this story's about; the family members we know and love and the new additions as well.

It was time for some shopping at the Tractor Supply in Hendersonville. Shirley Medrano's whole family was coming along.

"We're very family oriented," Shirley smiled.

Last July, Shirley found how much she needs them all. After suffering some kind of emergency, Shirley was rushed to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. She woke up in the ICU.

"I was going into liver rejection," Shirley said.

Shirley was about to go through a liver transplant. Through it all, that family was always there.

"They were usually getting kicked out cause it was only two people per person in a room," she laughed. "It was them all bunched up! They never stopped showing up, no matter how grumpy I was at the hospital."

"While I was in the hospital, my brother-in-law bought me a plushie that was from Vanderbilt gift shop," Shirley continued. "It was a dachshund. That dachshund was in there with me as I was getting every shot, every IV, so yeah."

Shirley's doing much better now. There's something you should know about this shopping trip.

Tractor Supply and Make-A-Wish Middle Tennessee partnered up to get a gift for Shirley. Remember the little stuffed dachshund at the hospital? At Tractor Supply, an employee walked out with a real dachshund and handed her to Shirley. Shirley, meet Valentina.

Another part of the gift was a Tractor Supply shopping spree for things for Valentina.

"She's something I really wanted, something I really love," said Shirley. "Absolutely adorable. So tiny. She's never going to be alone or bored with both my nieces and my little brother around!"

"I'm here. I'm walking. I'm with my family. I'm thankful for that," said Shirley.

Welcome to a loving family, Valentina.

By the way, Shirley will be graduating high school in two weeks. Her aim is to care for people. She's already got her certified nursing assistant license and is planning to get her RN at a community college.

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Growing your family, no matter the journey to get there, is an emotional one. My heart aches for these families who trusted a Nashville fertility clinic with their dreams and finances. Hannah McDonald's relentlessness to find answers is journalism at its best and hopefully a new avenue of hope for the patients caught up in this mess.

-Carrie Sharp