Mark Farewell's Memorial Fund

On 10/14 my dad was hospitalized with shortness of breath due to fluid buildup around his heart.  Following surgery to remove the fluid he was placed in ICU on a ventilator because his heart did not recover well from the surgery.  He was successfully removed from the ventilator after 4 days but still did not seem to be getting better.  On 10/25 after many, many tests and a week and a half in the ICU he was finally diagnosed with a very aggressive form of mesothelioma which was growing on the outside of his heart.  A few days later he received a couple of doses of chemotherapy and we were hopeful that would at least give him a fighting chance.  However, the night following the chemo his blood pressure dropped suddenly and his kidneys began to fail.  He was then placed on dialysis but he just grew weaker and continued to retain fluid.  Doctors then discovered that the walls of his heart were hardening and they didn't think he would be able to survive another surgery to help that.  So on 11/3 he was placed on the hospice wing of Mary Washington Hospital and taken off of all his medications to help his weak heart.  He passed away peacefully on 11/5. We are, of course, shocked and devastated by all this and slowly trying to process what has happened. As you can imagine after three weeks in the hospital (mostly in ICU) we are expecting the medical bills to be overwhelming so I am asking for your donations to help my mom with this financial burden.   Any amount will help and is greatly appreciated.  If you know my parents at all you know its not easy for my mom to ask for help but she has been at the hospital with dad all this time and has only been able to work very little so I know she is going to need as much help as possible.  Thank you in advance for your donations as well as your thoughts and prayers.