Matt Owens

Matthew was born with a congenital heart defect and at age 3 had his first open heart surgery. He has had a total of 9 heart surgeries, 3 of them being open heart. On Friday, March 10, 2023 - Matt had his 4th open heart surgery, 10th total at Mayo in Rochester, MN at the age of 22.

Matt is in real danger of losing his job because of the surgery and the recovery period. He has not worked for his company long enough for his job to be protected under FMLA and can't file for unemployment or disability.

So many of you have asked us how to help. What do we need?

Besides sleep.

Besides prayer.

Besides Jesus.

We need Matthew to be okay. The biggest concern we have right now is Matthew going back to Texas after he is discharged and trying to pick up where he left off.

He told us before his appointments Wednesday he was going back to work on the 20th of this month. Ummmmm no.

No.

You.

Are.

Not.

He will have lifting restrictions and cardiac rehab he needs to go to for at LEAST 2 months. He is also leaving the hospital on blood thinners and blood pressure medicine for at least 2 months. His job requires lifting over 100 pounds and climbing insanely tall towers in the air. ( He is a tower lineman) I do not know when he will be able to return to work but it certainly will not be the 20th of this month. Or the next. Or probably even the next...

He is worried, overwhelmed, and stressed about making ends meet, his job and being able to pay bills. He is so independent and he WILL push limits that are not meant to be pushed to get back to work because he feels like he has to. Asking for help is never easy, but I am asking on his behalf. He does not know it yet.

This will help ease his mind about financial worries, and stop him from making stupid decisions like trying to do things he should not or not going to cardiac rehab or follow-up care or take medication.

It will also help US. While Kurt and I can help out ( and are helping) with his flights and immediate needs we are not financially capable of helping with the entirety of what he needs. Praying over this continually. Please share it!

If you do not wish to donate through gofundme please reach out! We have venmo and directly depositing into his account personally as options!!

Our prayer is that he feels how loved he is and he can SEE in a tangible way the hands and feet of Jesus. We NEED him to recover WELL.

There is NO cure for Matthew, and unless a miracle his battle with this life-threatening disease will be every day and lifelong.