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Platelet Levels Are Low, but Her Spirit Isn't

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 09:01 CST

By The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Mar. 1--One day, Jessi Cravath

Hightower was doing well, raising her 16-month-old son, Trenton, with her husband, Byron.

The next, she walked into a store and suddenly couldn't catch her breath. Her sister carried her to the car and rushed her to a hospital.

The 27-year-old Central Coast native and Arroyo Grande High School graduate has spent the last month at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, receiving blood transfusions, plasma treatments and a round of chemotherapy.

She was recently diagnosed with two blood diseases and one kidney disease. Her antibodies are killing her blood, and her platelet levels are very low, said her sister, Kelli Medeiros.

Jessi was transferred Monday to the hematology department at USC University Hospital because she's not responding to the treatment well enough at Cottage Hospital, Medeiros said.

Her parents, Jackie and Guy Cravath, have been by her side daily.

Friends say that through it all, Jessi has remained positive.

"She's carried everyone through this with her attitude and her faith," said Tracy Rogers, who met Jessi several years ago when both worked at Fidelity National Title in Arroyo Grande.

Rogers is helping to organize two benefits. A blood drive will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Pismo Beach Outlets Center off Five Cities Drive, and a barbecue will run from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at Beach & Country Real Estate, 1300 Price St. in Pismo Beach.

Donations to the Jessi Cravath Hightower Benefit Fund may also be made at any Mid-State Bank & Trust.

Mankins gives back

Howard Mankins is a giver. So when Arroyo Grande officials started a campaign to raise donations for new lights to line the streets of the historic Village, Mankins and his family decided it was time to give to a city they've watched change and grow for decades.

"Our family decided, 'Why don't we speed it (the campaign) up a bit?' " he said.

Mankins, a former Arroyo Grande mayor and county supervisor, bought 12 lights at $3,000 each to line East Branch Street from Short Street to Crown Hill. They've already been installed, and commemorative brass plaques will soon be added.

During a brief dedication ceremony Friday, Arroyo Grande Mayor Tony Ferrara thanked Mankins for "this absolutely astonishing and generous donation."

Mankins then surprised the mayor and other city officials gathered by pledging to fund another dozen lights, which will be strung around Village Green park.

Planting in Nipomo

South County residents are invited to get dirty in Nipomo this weekend.

The Nipomo Native Garden is holding its last spring planting of the year starting at 9 a.m. Saturday. More than 400 plants need to get into the ground before the summer dry season.

Volunteers are asked to bring a shovel, gloves, hat and drinking water to the garden, which is at Pomeroy Road and Camino Caballo, at the Nipomo Regional Park.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

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Source: The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

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