Help Margaret After Heart Attack & Stroke

Hello everyone. It is truly not like us to ask for help but this is the worst situation we have ever faced. I am attempting to raise money for my mom, Malgorzata (Margaret) Ossowska who recently suffered two major heartbreaking and life altering events: a heart attack on February 1st AND a stroke on February 10th. Both of these major medical events came as a shock to our family and have caused my beloved Mom to have spent almost all of her month of February hospitalized in a fragile and weak condition that I could have never previously imagined her in. My Mom has always been a warrior: she is a single mother to my little brother and I as well as our two pups and has even continued to look after my dad – her ex-husband- throughout the years because he has stage four leukemia. Her fighter spirit, thank God, allowed her to survive both the heart attack and the stroke. When my little brother found my mom unconscious on the floor of our home just 4 days after she had finally gotten discharged from her heart attack hospitalization and newfound heart failure diagnosis, we really thought we were going to lose her. The ambulance rushed her to the hospital again and I was getting told by countless neurologists and anesthesiologists to run to meet them outside of the emergency operating room to immediately sign all consent forms because she was slowly slipping away and they needed to start performing the surgery in that instant. I was transparently given some of the most heart-wrenching information by the medical team: that she was in such a fragile state due to her very recent heart attack that this surgery to remove the clots in her brain could realistically result in death. I cannot describe the pain I felt as the doctor disclosed that he could not promise me that my mom would walk out of that room. Tears endlessly flooded out of my eyes and my heart was aching immensely… my whole world was crumbling in front of me. I pushed past the nurses and doctors to see my mom on the operating table, to give her beautiful kind face what could have been a last look according to the medical team. Even with her speech slurred, extreme state of confusion, and one side of her body and face paralyzed she managed to understand that her baby girl needed her more than ever in that moment. She used every last bit of strength in her to tell me she loves me and to not cry. I didn’t know if I would ever see her again so I just repeatedly told her how much I love and adore her and thanked her for always giving me so much love and care, until the doctors basically peeled me off of her body and told me that they were ready to start the surgery in that exact moment. After three agonizing hours, my phone rang and my heart sunk with fear, but thank God the news was what I had been praying for every minute of those horrifying hours: Mom survived the surgery. Though God has blessed my brother and I immensely with my Mom’s survival and that is the most important part, we realistically have already accrued a frightening amount of medical debt with only more medical expenses to come for the intensive treatment and countless appointments my mom now requires. She has necessary appointments awaiting her at three different hospitals, with various medical teams, and many many types of therapies and medications to be taken. At home therapy as well as outpatient treatment for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy are all required on top of appointments with cardiologists and neurologists where further tests such as a Cardiac MRI will be required. Mom is now required to wear a heart monitor device 24/7 called a Life Vest which will detect any abnormality in the heart’s rhythm and shock it back into proper function if necessary. As you can imagine, this is all very costly and her insurance (through her job which she cannot return to for the time being) does not provide sufficient aid and coverage for all of these expenses. She is unable to work for the foreseeable future which of course creates a financial strain on our little family as I have been fully devoted to my first year in law school up until this point and my little brother is still in high school. My parents are divorced and my dad is unable to work himself due to his extremely fragile condition (he almost lost his battle to his leukemia in August but miraculously is still holding on now). I have taken over the full responsibility to care for my Mom, both during her hospitalizations and after as she will require constant monitoring/ supervision and I will of course be going to every single appointment with her. After surviving both a heart attack and a stroke, Mom will now be trying to navigate this new lifestyle with her heart failure diagnosis and constant need for medical attention. Her ejection fraction – this is essentially a measure of heart strength based on the heart’s ability to effectively pump blood – is only 15% whereas an average heart’s ejection fraction should be around 60-65%. Anything under 40% is deemed to be the “red zone” and Mom is at 15% which means her heart is severely weakened and failing, now making any movement or daily task very physically exhausting and painful for her. Again, I am so sorry to even publish this outreach but we have reached a point of devastation and any help during this frightening and challenging time is greatly appreciated.