Marcus' Fight

My brother needs help and our family is reaching out to the community.

Marcus is in heart failure. At 44 years old his heart can no longer function properly due to the trauma it has endured his entire life.

In 1984, at the age of 10 years old, Marcus was extremely fortunate to have a life-saving heart surgery that kept him going for 34 years. The heart condition he was born with is called Tricuspid Atresia. It is a congenital heart disease (CHD) that makes up a small percentage of children born with a heart problem and occurs in about five of every 100,000 births. The open-heart surgery Marcus had in 1984 is called the Fontan procedure and although it saved his life the long-term effects of this surgery have now caught up with him. The Fontan procedure changes the blood to flow through the lungs without being pumped by the heart. The long-term consequences are chronic venous hypertension and insidious organ damage so, unfortunately, he also has liver cirrhosis. Not only does Marcus need a new heart, but he also requires a new liver.

*Marcus with his brothers Justin, Christian and Jon. Marcus (far right) roughly 3 years after his open heart surgery.

The next part of Marcus’ journey is the most difficult.

We live in Canada and we are blessed with incredible doctors, nurses and health staff. Marcus has been through countless surgeries, a bought of meningitis, and a brain abscess which required months of healing, and every step of the way my brother has fought courageously to persevere. He is the toughest person I know. Unfortunately, where we live in Calgary, Alberta, no doctor has ever preformed a double transplant of the heart and liver. The only doctors who can operate are in Toronto, Ontario. The team here has forwarded his case to the transplant team in Toronto for their review. Marcus will need to fly to Toronto if they want to meet with him and if they agree to list him for transplant, he will need to move to Ontario until a match is found and the surgery is done. If he is not accepted in Toronto, there is no other course of action we can take in Canada and he will continue to worsen. Our last hope is to have the operation done in the U.S., but it would not be covered by insurance and we are told the cost is in the millions.

Marcus’ wish is to have his loving wife and three young children be present with him in Toronto. This will be financially difficult as Marcus runs a small business and over the past year he has been unable to work at full capacity. After the operation he is not allowed to work for an entire year. I am asking for financial help for Marcus’ family because he is about to face the toughest battle of his life. And the financial burden this has placed on him and his family is overwhelming.

*Marcus (left) with his son Hayden, daughters Karen and Christine, and wife Meg

Please keep my brother and his family in your thoughts that he will be accepted for listing in Ontario and that he remains healthy enough to accept a transplant in the future.

For support and updates, and to join Marcus’ Fight  you can follow his journey on Facebook here .

We all love you, Marcus!