Dad's Memorial Fund

Hi there everyone, if you have a little bit of time to read my dad's story about his ongoing battle with health, I really appreciate you. If you can donate anything, or at least share, that will help my family out greatly. I think that we are all in need of support nowadays, especially with this ongoing pandemic, and I know my dad for sure has tried his best to keep on going in life, no matter what may block his path, like we all should.  

To start my dad's story off, his name is Gary Torvik. Born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. He worked in the engineering field for over 3 decades, helping design the cruise/tomahawk missile, defense systems for the U.S., spacecraft technology for NASA, and even little things, like helping design the machine that makes/packs all the milk cartons for schools around the nation. I think he's pretty cool for doing all of that, and much more.

But... the last decade hasn't been the greatest for him and his health. After surviving an intensive surgery and the long recovery process that he battled through with his liver transplant in 2008 (he had Hepatitis C from a bad blood infusion when he was younger), my dad is no stranger to having something hard to deal with, health wise. He recently in the past few years was able to heal almost fully from his liver transplant, he no longer needed to take anti-rejection drugs in as strong of a strain as he did (they prevent your body from damaging an organ).

After a few years of finally getting better, he still had issues finding the right medicines without constant migraines as a side affect or worse, and then... the doctors ended up prescribing him the wrong medicine. This medicine ended up scarring his lungs permanently, and ruined his ability to breathe well on his own, without a machine. This was somewhat found out in September 2018, when he could no longer make it up the stairs of the house or the gym without being out of breath. After testing, hospital visits, and even more testing, in May 2019, we found out that he has a disease called "Pulmonary Fibrosis", which is incurable, and not effectively (or affordably) treatable. He was given 3-5 years to live as of last year. On top of that, he had to get surgery on his neck shortly after finding this all out.  

I want my dad to meet my children, see me get married, and graduate college.
But that is at risk right now. My dad is a father to 4 sons and 1 daughter, and between all of us, he has 8 grandchildren. He is 65 years old, but still has plenty of life and love in him; he deserves to see all of his children and grandchildren grow up and take care of their children in the future. 

Comprehending the situation hasn't been the easiest for me, nor for all of my family. We all are hurting on the inside seeing him go through all of this. His fight has inspired me to do my best with my time and life, and to live with meaning.

There is hope though. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota denied him for a Lung Transplant after a long wait on their list, but, we have been referred to Cleveland, Ohio for a possible transplant. We only have a few locations in the U.S.A. where the transplant could be done, and we are hoping for the best out of this situation. During October my parents and I will be going to Cleveland for his testing. We can only hope for the best. 

Of course, lung transplants are not cheap at all. That's why, out of financial and support reasons, I am taking to GoFundMe for your help.   

If you can pitch in anything, even something small like $10 dollars -- $20 dollars or any amount around that, it all adds up. If you would be able to share as well, that is very much appreciated.

The funds will go towards the cost of the transplant and medical costs that will be incurred.  

We are also in the middle of trying to get ready to sell our house to help cover some of the costs of the transplant. It's not been fun doing that, but we probably have to with a situation like this. 

Feel free to contact me on Facebook(https://www.facebook.com/shane.torvik) or here if you need to for any reason, and please share and spread the word as much as possible. Thank you so much.