Mark’s Emergency Open Heart Surgery Recovery

Hi, my name is Erica Ostaszewski, and I’ve created this fundraiser on behalf of my husband, Mark. On the morning of Friday, September 30, 2022, my husband had an emergency open heart surgery for an aortic aneurysm at risk of bursting. Had it burst, he would’ve bled out internally and died before we ever reached a hospital. Mark is a healthy, active, 40-year-old, who is an amazing husband and loving father of our 3 young children. He had no prior health conditions, and there was less than 14 hours between the aneurysm being confirmed and him on an operating room table with his chest sawed open and his heart stopped and on a bypass machine.

While we are forever grateful for discovering this when we did, we now face a very long, 3-4 month road to recovery. All of this happened so fast and was completely unexpected, and we desperately need help with our new normal. We are asking for donations to help offset the cost of major hospital, surgery and rehabilitation bills, lost wages from his time out of work and my time out of work to care for him. We don’t know how we’re going to manage it all, but we are trusting our amazing God who saved his life to provide everything that is needed.

If you are in a position to help and to give, it would mean the world to our family. If you aren’t, we covet your prayers most of all, and it would help so much if you could share this fundraiser.

Last but not least, if there are any congenital heart issues in your family, please go see a doctor now. The events of how we found Mark’s aneurysm we’re nothing short of a miracle, and you can hear the full story that led to his surgery here: https://youtu.be/ZLNF-qzbjVk. If this can save even one life, it’s so worth it!