GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A Grand Rapids woman's health funding issues and her effort to get a heart transplant have gone viral after a newly elected congresswoman tweeted about it Saturday.

The tweet from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a popular Democrat from New York City who won the November election at age 29, noted "insurance groups recommending GoFundMe as official policy" and cited a hospital letter to Grand Rapids resident Hedda Martin.

Martin on Nov. 21 posted a public letter to her Facebook page from the Spectrum Health Heart & Lung Specialized Care Clinics that recommended "a fundraising effort of $10,000" if she is to be considered a heart-transplant candidate.

Hedda Martin

In her post, she explained that the the hospital wants to make sure she can pay for the $700-per-month anti-rejection drugs and her $4,500 annual deductible.

After the $4,500 is paid, the drugs would be covered at 100 percent.

Martin, in the post, said she has been told by hospital officials that she must have $10,000 set aside to be considered for a heart transplant.

The incoming congresswoman's tweet garnered 65,000 'likes' and about 2,600 comments by Sunday morning about the national health care dilemma. It also created so much interest in Martin's case that her son, in fact, used a GoFundMe page to raise more than $11,000 for her in just a few hours.

Martin's heart failure is related to chemotherapy from earlier breast cancer, her son said. She is planning to have surgery Monday involving a "ventricular assist device" to help her heart as a short-term solution.

Contacted through Facebook messenger, Martin early Sunday said she was "overwhelmed by everyone's kindness."

She said she's not upset with her hospital care team, but thinks Spectrum administrators could have handled the situation better.

"I will get better and I will fight to my last breath the injustice and greed in our healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors," she wrote.

Ocasio-Cortez campaigned on a goal of getting "Medicare for all" and universal health care.

In her tweet involving Martin, she wrote: "Insurance groups are recommending GoFundMe as official policy - where customers can die if they can't raise the goal in time - but sure, single payer healthcare is unreasonable."

Insurance groups are recommending GoFundMe as official policy - where customers can die if they can’t raise the goal in time - but sure, single payer healthcare is unreasonable.



h/t @DanRiffle pic.twitter.com/zetPW0MgDd — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 24, 2018

Spectrum Health, which is not an insurance company, issued a statement on the issue late Saturday and said they have an obligation to make sure donor organs "remain viable" and that "costs are sometimes a regrettable and unavoidable factor in the decision-making process."

Hospital officials said they work with patients to identify funding opportunities.

The full statement is as follows:

"While we do not comment on specific patient situations to protect their privacy, Spectrum Health cares deeply about every patient that enters its doors and provides each of them the highest quality of care possible. While it is always upsetting when we cannot provide a transplant, we have an obligation to ensure that transplants are successful and that donor organs will remain viable. We thoughtfully review candidates for heart and lung transplant procedures with care and compassion, and these are often highly complex, difficult decisions. While our primary focus is the medical needs of the patient, the fact is that transplants require lifelong care and immunosuppression drugs, and therefore costs are sometimes a regrettable and unavoidable factor in the decision making process. We partner with our patients throughout their care and work closely with them to identify opportunities for financial assistance. Our clinical team has an ongoing dialogue with patients about their eligibility, holding frequent in-person meetings and informing patients in person to ensure they fully understand their specific situation."