
Help 4 the Whitman Family Loss x 2
Donation protected
I am in a very small way trying to help my recently deceased brothers family with some ever mounting medical, funeral and simple gas, food & loss of wages expenses.. With no sign of those expenses slowing down. The sudden loss of my brother to a massive heart attack on Christmas Eve left his wheelchair bound wife, 4 adult children and their families with expenses beyond their capabilities. just weeks prior to losing my brother... the love of his life, my sweet sister in law Ruth was diagnosed with stage 3 Enchondroma Sarcoma an extremely rare form of cancer in early November. The tumor was located in her humorous bone. On Dec. 11th she had a 6.5 hour surgery to have the upper portion of the humorous bone and the shoulder removed. A large tumor was removed with clean margins. (no cancer cells detected in the tissue around the perimeters of the tumor site, once the tumor had been removed) Unfortunately the cancer had found its way into her blood stream before the surgery happened and has now manifested in her lungs and it has also made its way into her lymphatic system. A steel rod was put in to replace the extracted bone connecting the remaining arm bone. This surgery had to take place out of her Medicare insurances network and has a most recent known balance of $88,000. more devastating news for this family still numb from burying their husband/dad/grandpa... on December 31st came this past Tuesday when Ruth was experiencing some major pain and was admitted to the hospital to receive medical attention and what was discovered is simply heart wrenching to write about.... but here goes: the Drs were concerned with roughly 10 spots on Ruth's lungs that had showed on her scans the Monday before her surgery so another scan was done this week and there are 100's of spots....yes 100's!!! also, two lymph nodes in the arm that she had surgery on were perfectly clear at surgery and they now have 2" tumors in them. The oncologist said that the cancer is very aggressive and chemotherapy would not benefit her quality of life and when/if she returns home it will have to be with hospice care. I am determined to help them in any way I can...my brother had a very small life insurance policy that currently has not been able to be located and his funeral expenses alone were $11,000. Ruth has no life insurance policy. Ruth has very little time left with her family and they will turn around within a month possibly two of burying their dad and bury their mom. Money and where it will come from has not even been on their radar but once this all subsides the expenses will create hardship that with a little help from friends and family might be lessened with all of our help for medical bills, funeral expenses and just to help in any way their households that have lost wages while away from their homes and gas to get back and forth to the appts and hospital stays..food etc...PLEASE give what you can...each dollar will be appreciated from their hearts for the hard days ahead as they say goodbye to their mother shortly after saying goodbye to their dad... I thank you from the bottom of my heart as do my other siblings and my brothers family as well. .
Organizer and beneficiary
Lisa Marie
Organizer
Dickinson, ND
Michael Whitman
Beneficiary