We Need to Be With Mark!

On April 23, 2015 our family received some pretty devastating news, our brother/son/husband was put on the top of the heart transplant waiting list. Mark had been not feeling well for a couple weeks, he was sick with a sinus infection & virus. When he started to feel a little bit better, he went back to work on Monday, 4/13. Well he didn't get any better, he actually started feeling worse and on Thursday, 4/16 his wife Vicky brought him to the ER. He was very lethargic & was having difficulty breathing. When he got to the local hospital in Pueblo, CO his heart was found to be in A-fib (an irregular, often rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow) They were not able to get his heart rate back to normal & it was determined he needed to be life flighted to University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, CO for more advanced cardiac treatment. His wife & family made the 3 hour drive north to be with him. There they were still unsuccessful in getting his heart rate back to a normal rhythm. He was then placed on an ecmo machine which is a machine that removes his blood from his body, oxygenates it and puts it back in his body to help his heart rest with the hopes it would gain enough strength to respond to the treatments to get it back into rhythm. All that was unsuccessful. The decision was made that his heart is too weak to recover from being in a-fib (they have no way of knowing how long he has had the irregular heart beat but catching the virus & being sick made it worse) and a transplant will be necessary.
He's in Colorado and we are in Massachusetts, almost 2000 miles away and his family wants and needs to be with him during this difficult time! Funds are needed to get my parents and family out there to be with him! Funds raised will be used for the travel of our family, and any expenses that go with that for us to get out there and be with him. Every little bit will help, it all adds up!
Thank you!
Amy and family