Help pay for my husband's cremation costs.

My name is Mary Heicher and my husband of 53 years, Lee Heicher, passed peacefully in his sleep on 11/20/2021 after a long fought battle with cancer, pneumonia, and Ankylosing Spondylitis. This fundraiser is to cover the cremation costs.

Lee was a navy veteran of 20 years and the most kindhearted individual that the world could offer.

Lee always knew how to brighten up someone's mood and make them smile. Lee took everything that life had to offer and lived it to its fullest extent.

Lee was always a fighter when it came to life and cared for everyone around him. When he was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer, having spread to his lymph nodes. Lee attempted to keep the diagnosis secreted away from the rest of the family an attempt to protect everyone from the reality that such a diagnosis brings. Eventually, after numerous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, he miraculously managed to overcome it.

Unfortunately, it was shortly shortly after this that he began to have difficulty breathing as he had been afflicted with pneumonia. Lee underwent two months of antibiotics to no effect and became critical in October in the middle of the night. Lee was urgently moved to St. Vincent's on October 15th and placed on a CPAP to facilitate his breathing. As if this was not enough, the results of his PET scan came back, showing that the cancer in his lungs had returned.

Over the next few days, the pneumonia became more severe. Lee began to deteriorate and opted to be intubated and placed on a ventilator later that day. This was the last day that Lee was conscious and the last time he spoke to us.

From October 18th onwards, Lee was in a medically induced coma while the medical staff attempted to find out what form of pneumonia he had and attempted to keep him stable.

After the strain of pneumonia was found, they treated Lee with the correct antibiotics to lower the amount of infection he had. Things began to seem as though they were getting better, as his WBC count was lowering, his heart rate returned to normal and his oxygen saturation was going up. Clinically, he was recovering. We were informed that Lee would have a mild form of pneumonia for months after he recovered, but that things were looking up.

It was then that the staff began to attempt to wake him from his medically induced coma. Unfortunately, this was not possible as he would become too agitated and require more sedation. This resulted in him having to have a tracheotomy performed to allow him to breathe without the irritation of the tube in his throat. After three weeks of intubation, the tracheotomy was performed and Lee was transferred over to Kindred to be weened off the ventilator.

While at Kindred, Lee was given the best care possible. Every day for his ten day stay we met with the doctors, sat with him, told him how much we loved him and wished him a quick recovery and what we would do once he got out. Eight days after his admission, Lee was moved from their critical care wing to a normal room, giving us a breath of relief and something we hadn't felt in a long time: Hope.

This hope was short lived as during our visit, we were informed that Lee was running a fever of 103 and his WBC count indicated severe infection. He was given fluids and medication, but seemed to be stable. Later in the day, we were informed he was being admitted back into the critical care wing. Hours later, we were told to come to the hospital as soon as possible, as Lee's oxygen had plummeted and his heart had slowed down from 100 to 52 at 8:25 P.M. His body was giving out and unable to fight off the infection.

While enroute to the hospital, we were informed the worst: Lee's heart had stopped. The hospital had performed five rounds of CPR at this point and his heart was incapable of being shocked. By the time we arrived at the hospital, it was too late and Lee was gone.

We write this to give a clear picture of the fight that Lee put up from start to finish and to share his story. Every step of the way, Lee wouldn't give up and continued to fight, but ultimately his body could not fight off the aggressive pneumonia he had.

I write this with the assistance of my grandson and am asking for assistance in helping pay for his cremation costs. Lee specified that in the event of his passing that he did not want a full funeral proceeding and as such we are respecting his wishes by having cremation performed.

Thank you for reading this and thank you to everyone that is helping make it possible to fulfill his wishes.