Donate to Aid Marissa and Brandon's Healing

Hi! My name is Kari Batten and I’m a colleague of Marissa Proshek. We both work at Sturgis Public Schools. On Tuesday July 15 2025, her world was turned upside down. This message below is from Marissa’s personal page. She posted this on July 16 2025

This man is Officer Rick Mercado.This man is an angel. This man is a miracle sent straight from God. I have his permission to post this. (This is the police officer posted in the picture with Marissa)

Yesterday. Yesterday my world almost came to a halt. Yesterday my husband died. This man brought him back to me.

For those of you who do not know, Brandon drives semi trucks (although how you couldn't know I'm not sure!). Yesterday, for whatever reason, he was out of route. Maybe there was a strange detour that he didn't know about. Maybe he got turned around. I don't know. He ended up in a residential neighborhood, which is a big no-no for a semi. Officer Mercado, of course, stopped him.

Brandon is a sweetheart and a talker. They got to talking... the Army (both served), careers (both have had the same career for 25 years), their ages (Rick is exactly 20 years older than Brandon). Brandon told him he just wanted to get home to his wife (me). He couldn't talk his way out of the ticket, but hey, it passed the time. Officer Mercado handed Brandon the ticket... and Brandon died.

His heart stopped beating. Rick IMMEDIATELY started CPR, reached for his radio at his shoulder and called for an ambulance, and kept up CPR until the ambulance arrived. He was in VFIB, so they shocked his heart... 3 times. He was intubated. When he got to the hospital he was in AFIB... more shocks. To the cardiac catheterization lab... no blockage! OK... no heart attack. Labs are wonky. They moved him up to cardiac ICU, where he's stabilized... they're trying to take out the breathing tube. He's going to live!

Officer Mercado told me he was kept awake all night thinking about the "what ifs?" What if Brandon had been on the correct route and died behind the wheel? What if he'd decided not to stop him rather than doing his job? What if he'd just let him go with a warning? I had similar thoughts. But, God has other plans. This man, though... this man is a hero. This man is MY hero.

Brandon isn’t ever going to be able to drive his truck again. Which equals no income. With permission from Marissa and Brandon, I have created this account in hopes of raising some funds to help with some bills to get them by in the meantime. If you can not donate, please consider sharing or praying for a speedy recovery for Brandon and prayers for Marissa as they navigate this new way of life.