Medical Expenses & Funeral Costs For Mary Ovist

Dear family, friends and to all of those who may or may not know us, this is Mary’s husband Jason.

As much as it pains me to write this, but with what life has thrown at us the last week, I had to make some tough decisions.

Mary Ovist, 47, is the mother of Bailey Shain and Megan Speich. Fur mom to Wisco and Sconnie. Daughter of Diana Schockley and Mike (Debbie) Crooks. Sister to Tonya (Ricki) Schrupp and Carla (Chris) Cornell and her brother, Brad. Step-mother of Kelsie Duzan (Phil Mena), Courtney Ovist (Brooke Irwin), and Corbin (Kayli) Ovist. Daughter-in-law of Jim (Deb) Ovist. Sister-in-law to Jamie (Shannon) Ovist. Along with many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, 6 grandchildren and another one on the way.

Mary was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis about 2 years ago and recently went through a few surgeries, including her rotator cuff, carpal tunnel, elbow and knee- all on the right side of her body.

Mary, despite showing her pain and agony, woke up everyday showing tremendous strength and determination to get whatever she needed done. Whether that was going to work everyday, watching her grandkids, playing with her dogs, running errands, traveling, etc.

On Saturday April 26th, 2025 she woke up with a migraine. She spent the day cuddled up under a blanket, laying on the couch in pain, with her right leg propped up on a pillow. I ran a few errands around town so she could stay comfortable and relax to feel better. I returned home and she was up to going to Woodman’s and get groceries with me. While at Woodman’s, she said everytime she looked down, the back of her neck would hurt. Once getting home from groceries, she went and took a hot bath. Later laid back down on the couch while I did some yard work outside. I came in every so often to check on her and she said she still had the migraine. She wanted Arby’s for supper, so being the husband I am, I went to get us some dinner. After we finished eating, I suggested her to go to the emergency room but she said for it being a Saturday night, it would be too busy and she’d wait forever. While enjoying watching tv together, she said her back was starting to hurt and asked if I could crack it for her. I did my best to ease her pain but she was still hurting. She decided it was time to go after every effort to help herself, she left our home at 9:19 pm to go to the emergency room at Beloit Memorial Hospital.

She began to vomit after walking in the doors to the ER. Megan, her youngest daughter, arrived to be there and comfort Mary, as she told me to stay home with the dogs. Megan texted me at 10:04 pm saying her mom wasn’t okay. At 10:06 pm, she informed me that Mary was seizing and became unresponsive. As things escalated, I hopped in my car and hurried to be by her side. We live 3 minutes from the hospital. Once I got to the hospital at 10:22 pm, the ER doctor informed me that we have to med flight her to UW-Madison to their Neurology Department. Beloit’s medical staff kept her in their care until the helicopter arrived at 11:28 pm. Upon arriving in Madison, she was rushed into emergency surgery.

The following day, Sunday April 27th: Her surgery consisted of drilling a hole in her skull due to the severe brain bleed, which was originally thought to be an aneurysm. It took around 4 hours to complete, she then was admitted into the Neurology-ICU. At 4:57 am, the doctor called me saying that she was out of surgery, and that we could go to her room in one hour and see her. Around 6 am, the family and I took turns seeing her. She was in a medically induced coma at that time.

While it pained us to leave her, we all left the hospital, returned to our homes so that Mary could rest and we could as well. Shortly after I dozed off, I received a phone call at 10:33 am being informed that we had to do a decompression test since there was so much pressure on the right side of her brain. The doctor informed me they would have to remove the right half of her skull and put it in a freezer until she recovered and the swelling went down. We all then returned back to Madison awaiting for her to get out of surgery. They set her up on continuous EEG monitoring. She spent the rest of her day resting, recovering from 2 very extensive back to back surgeries.

On Monday, April 28th, no progress was made and later that night around 10:30 pm, she was taken for an MRI.

On Tuesday April 29th, we received the results of the MRI. Nurses and doctors noticed that her face and hands were swelling, they applied compression gloves to her hands and ice packs on her eyes to help reduce it. Results of the MRI were not good. We were told that ‘if’ she makes it out of here, her hippocampus (short term memory) is damaged, she would need a trach, a feeding tube and 24/7 care at home or in a nursing facility. We spent the rest of that day giving her lots of love and shed a lot of tears.

On Wednesday April 30th, the swelling in her face had went down and that afternoon she had started to show movement in her eyelids. Although on the ventilator, her nurse was able to show us that Mary was attempting to inhale on her own!

On Thursday May 1st, not much had changed and no other updates, she remained stable.

On Friday May 2nd, when I got to the hospital, the occupational therapy team came by and told me they were going to sit her up on the edge of the bed and see if she would move and/or respond to the treatment. Once she was sat all the way up, she opened her left eye and had some hand movement. After the therapy had finished, they realized she was getting tired and laid her back down. When I showed her some videos on my phone of our dogs, who miss her very much and are lost without their mommy right now, she began to flutter her eyelids a lot. I was filled with so much emotion, because in that moment I knew she had heard me.

On Saturday May 3rd, despite their best efforts, the doctor came back with devastating news… He told me that her brain is continuing to swell, her body is declining, her right eye has shut down completely, her pupils are no longer reacting, and I had to sign a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). My heart is shattered as she IS the love of my life. She IS my whole world! I know this wasn’t the outcome any of us wanted, but she fought very hard… In the coming days, we are going to have to say our goodbyes as Mary is uncomfortable and her status is deteriorating.

On Sunday May 4th, pretty much the same as the 3rd. No progress and she was in the same state. We loved on her some more and cherished our last full day with her. Nothing could have ever prepared us for this.

On Monday May 5th, all of our family on both sides gathered today and took turns saying our goodbyes. The decision was made to move Mary to comfort care, which included removing her breathing tube. Prior to that, she was surrounded by all of her loved ones. Her kids and mine were with her as she took her last breath. She will be forever missed and will always be in our hearts. She knew she was loved and the hospital said we had the best supportive family they’ve seen.

The reason for this GoFundMe is to help cover her medical bills, living expenses, and funeral costs. I miss her so much already, our families hearts are shattered. She was perfect, my entire world!

Thank you for taking the time to read what is going on with Mary and our family right now. Thank you to the ones who have prayed for us. Thank you to the ones who have brought over food. Thank you to the ones who shared their own personal stories with similar experiences. We couldn’t have done this without any of the family members, friends, the ones who came to see Mary, and all the support through a prayer chain of 1.8 million people around the globe. It doesn’t seem real that this is what we’re going through at this devastating time.

Mary and I appreciate and are blessed for everyone’s support. Please continue sharing your thoughts and prayers to her family, all of our kids and myself. This will be a very hard transition for me as my future just changed forever. She will always be the love of my life and forever my wife.

*I will be posting times for her benefit as it’s on June 13th, 2025 at Viking Lanes in South Beloit, IL and other events on here as well when I know some more information*