Support Mark Kirwin's Road to Recovery

Dear friends, family, and members of our community,

Our dad, Mark Kirwin, was rushed into emergency surgery in Canada last week after suddenly suffering from a type "A" aortic dissection and a stroke on his way home from visiting family. We were made aware he had a small chance of surviving the surgery, and his family flew out to await what we were told would be a potentially terrifying outcome. He miraculously survived an 8-hour open heart surgery, and has now been in the ICU for 8+ days in recovery. He has spent over a week unable to move, speak, or have awareness of who or where he was. While we are full of hope at every step he takes towards healing, we have been made aware that he has a long and very uncertain road to recovery. To ensure he can continue to progress and return to his life, he will require many, many more nights in the hospital, intensive post-op care, and rigorous aid from his family. This means not only a huge payment for medical bills, but my family's flights to and from Canada to care for him, time they take off work, his intensive care and all medications that he will require to have a fighting chance at recovery. My mother has had to uproot her life in California temporarily and stay in Canada because of this, and had to drop an in-person class she was planning to teach which was a core contributor to their income.

Because of this, we are reaching out to our beloved family, friends, cherished community members to see if they can offer any financial contribution to aid the burden this emergency has caused on my father and support his recovery in any way, so he can rejoin his friends, family and his life back in California. Our goal amount will cover the medical expenses that just his operation, and stay in the hospital have incurred.

Mark has as habitually and without a second thought spent his life giving to those in need and showing up for those around him. He has served his local Ventura community with pride and honor. He was the former President and then received a lifetime Service award by the Ventura county bar association, and has volunteered for years and is an avid member of the Ventura Salvation Army. Even in his older years, he shows up every weekend he can to hand out food. He received a Heroes Among Us award by Ventura county police department, and spent his 40's and 50's doing volunteer relief in Thailand, Haiti, Peru, New Zealand, India, Nepal, Philippines and in California, Texas, and New York, USA to help families in need that were uprooted by unforeseeable natural disasters. He was also a Volunteer mediator at UNFCCC climate change conferences, and a former track coach for the Santa Barbara special Olympics. Needless to say, he lived and still lives a life of genuine service, love and care.

I would love to see my dad able to return to his friends, swim in the ocean again, and drink a Guinness on the beach. I want him to wake up and make a cup of coffee, and hit the gym with his buddies or share a laugh over a post bike ride pastry at Simones. He has fought so hard to give life to others, and it breaks my heart to see the way his has been drained from him.

With that being said, we have been so grateful to our friends and family that have reached out during this very scary time, and every word, every call and every kind thought has given us strength, more than words can describe. If you do not have space or ability to donate, please know how much your kindness has meant to us.

Thank you, with love.