Photo submitted to Times Observer A benefit for Christi Carson, pictured with one of her twin daughters, will be held Sept. 24 at the Hessel Valley Lutheran Church in Chandlers Valley. Carson is a 2002 graduate of Warren Area High School, a nurse at UPMC Chautauqua and an Ashville resident.

Hessel Valley Lutheran Church in Chandlers Valley will host a benefit spaghetti with meat sauce dinner for Christi (Spackman) Carson from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24.

Carson, a Warren Area High School graduate and Ashville, N.Y., resident, was expecting twins when, on April 22, she went to UPMC Chautauqua in respiratory distress.

“She was flown from UPMC Chautauqua to UMPC Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.”

She gave birth to the twins — Isla Rae and Arabella Elizabeth — on April 23 via emergency C-section. She was then taken to the Thoracic Intensive Care Unit at UPMC Presbyterian.

Carson has undergone multiple surgical procedures, survived a fungal blood infection, and has had two ventricular assist devices surgically attached to her heart.

She was able to go home to Jamestown on Friday, Aug. 26.

Carson will go back to UPMC Presbyterian for three weeks of antibody filtering, probably in December or January, in preparation for receiving a heart transplant.

Meals are available for a donation. The event is drive-through-only.

All proceeds will go directly to the family.

For those interested in donating but unable to attend, checks may be may payable to the church, with Christi in the memo line, and sent to the church at 166 Hessel Valley Road, Chandlers Valley, 16350.