Marty’s Heart Transplant!

Hi everyone! This fundraiser is for Marty Farnsworth and Georgie Whittaker. I had the pleasure of working with Georgie and meeting Marty at the Kelso Eagles, and got the opportunity to spend time with these wonderful people. They have run into some problems that they need our help with. On Monday, January 11th, Marty started experiencing ventricular tachycardia, his heart was racing. Because he has dilated cardiomyopathy (the main part of his heart that pumps begins to dilate, which weakens it and causes the entire heart to weaken. He has an internal defibrillator to keep his heart pumping), he headed straight to the hospital, where he was admitted. He had surgery on Saturday, January 16th, and had an Impella device placed, which essentially does the job of the left ventricle and keeping his heart rhythms regular. He had another surgery on the afternoon of January 18th to replace it after the first Impella failed. He’s in a ton of pain after being opened up twice in 4 days. However, this is not a permanent fix. Marty knew he would need a heart transplant eventually, but that timeline has been moved up to now. He will be in the hospital until the heart transplant takes place, which could take months. Georgie is able to park their travel trailer on hospital grounds free of charge so she can be with him. He is only allowed one specified person to visit him for the duration of his hospital stay, and that’s Georgie. She had to quit both of her jobs in the Longview/Kelso area because Marty needs her support right now. While they don’t have to pay for the trailer parking, they’re still going to need some help paying the monthly bills that don’t just get put on hold when you’re in the hospital, and they shouldn’t have to blow through their savings to pay them. Georgie’s son is still at home, and they have phone bills, utilities, car payments, gas, groceries, and other things to pay for. They’re the kind of people who give help to others and never ask for anything even when they need it, and they could use the support of their friends and community during this time. No donation is too small, but we know money is tight for everyone, so if you can’t donate, please share!