Fundraiser for Maria Burk’s Recovery

Hello. My name is Alan Burk. This is my mom, Maria Burk. On March 7th, 2022, she had a stent put in at the recommendation of her cardiologist. It should have been a relatively simple and routine procedure, which it appeared to be at first. One week later, the stent failed and she had a heart attack. My dad called 911 and an ambulance arrived shortly afterwards. Once the ambulance pulled into the ER bay, my mom's heart stopped. They pulled the defibrillator and shocked her heart back to life, but during the process, she was laying on her back and vomited immediately after being revived; she aspirated the vomit into her lungs and was intubated and sedated at once.

The damage she sustained to her lungs were life-threatening. It seemed at the time that every doctor for anything you could think of was assigned to my mom. I have never seen anyone hooked up to as many machines as she was, either. It was heartbreaking for me, my dad, brother, wife, and anyone who knew her and knew how strong and active of a person she was… to see her lying there, fighting the biggest fight of her life. Two weeks later, her platelet count was dangerously low, she wasn’t taking to the blood transfusions well, still required the ventilator, had already suffered two cardiac arrests and the doctors feared that she would not survive the third, and her kidneys began to fail… we were advised shortly thereafter that it was unlikely she would survive. Even the most stoic among us crumbled at the news… It was the worst day of my entire life.

Then we were thrown the biggest curveball ever recorded - a new ER doctor was rotated in and he reassessed my mom. He had a different plan and we were all onboard - thank God for Dr K. Somehow, after they began removing her from the machines, her body started to heal. It was nothing short of a miracle which is what they told us it would take.

As of today - almost 4 months later, my mother is in a rehabilitation center and is in full recovery mode. She no longer requires oxygen assistance, she has mobility again in her arms, she is joking and laughing again, and she even began standing (assisted) just last week!! Right as the finish line started to come into view, her insurance decided that it was enough; they will not cover her rehabilitation any longer.

We are fighting the clock and pleading for an appeal, but the reality of the situation still looms large - we are going to need help.  We’d like to keep her in the rehabilitation center as the personnel have done a wonderful job thus far.  However, if that is not an option, then we will need help with in-home assistance, equipment such as a bed, wheelchair, harnesses, and a lift to get her from one thing to another.  It is likely that we will need to look into some minor home remodeling, too, such as building ramps in the entryways and any fitting needed to make a bathtub accessible to someone with limited mobility.
Thank you for the time you have spent to read about my mom’s journey.