In the final weeks of his life, Mark’s father, Jim, made a last-minute trip to a doctor.
A doctor told him his son’s heart was failing, and Jim wanted to do everything he could to save his son.
His wife, Kathleen, had taken Mark to see Dr. John Mathers, the head of the Cleveland Clinic’s cardiac care unit.
“He was very worried about his life,” Kathleen says.
“His last words to me were, ‘I just want to die.'”
Mather was a man who had a special place in Mark’s heart, but he also knew he had a hard time dealing with the pressures of caring for Mark, a man in his 30s.
His son’s doctors recommended a ventilator to save Mark’s life, but that wasn’t working.
And he also wanted to try to help Mark, too.
Mather had a lot of questions.
What if Mark’s health didn’t improve?
What if he died?
Would his mother be devastated?
Mark wanted answers.
He wanted to know whether or not he had to take the risks that were part of the hospitalization.
He had heard that ventilators could kill.
What would happen if he fell asleep and woke up?
What would Mark do if he woke up and realized he couldn’t walk?
And would his father be OK?
In the end, Mark made it.
He woke up on the operating table with a small scar.
The hospital staff called him his “biggest fan.”
“He made me believe that he cared about me,” Mark says.
Maser’s death left his wife, Nancy, and son devastated, but they had their own plan.
They wanted to make sure Mark was never left alone.
Nancy went to the hospital, but Mark’s mother, Barbara, called the family to say she had to leave.
Macey Mather says Mark’s parents were worried for him, and when she returned, she found his heart was “really dead.”
“I couldn’t believe he’d lost his life to the ventilating system,” Barbara Mather, now 84, tells PEOPLE.
“I don’t know how he did it.
They didn’t know what to expect when they arrived. “
She and Mark’s sister, Kathy, made the trek to Cleveland, where they had a heart attack and were taken to Cleveland Clinic.
They didn’t know what to expect when they arrived.
I don’t want you to have to stay with me,'” Nancy Macey says. “
Mark said, ‘Why do I have to be here?
I don’t want you to have to stay with me,'” Nancy Macey says.
Nancy says she left the hospital with tears in her eyes and had to be pulled from the ambulance when it arrived.
Mark’s condition stabilized, and he was moved to the Cleveland County Medical Center, where he remained for a week before he was discharged.
He has been in intensive care ever since.
“You know what happens to the body when you don’t have oxygen?”
Kathy Mather asks.
“The body starts shutting down.
It’s very difficult to be able to talk, breathe, feel, touch, smell, taste.
“Maser died after the emergency room doctors told him that his heart could no longer pump blood, and the team started treating him as though he had cardiac arrest. “
His doctors and nurses knew his condition was complicated and that it would take weeks for his heart to recover. “
Maser died after the emergency room doctors told him that his heart could no longer pump blood, and the team started treating him as though he had cardiac arrest.
His doctors and nurses knew his condition was complicated and that it would take weeks for his heart to recover.
And for a few weeks after his death, Kathy Mairns’ phone was ringing off the hook. “
It’s a very difficult thing to say to my husband and to my daughter-lover, but I can’t stop thinking about Mark Maser,” Kathy Maimers says.
And for a few weeks after his death, Kathy Mairns’ phone was ringing off the hook.
“People were texting and calling me and telling me that they wanted to help,” Kathy says.
Mark was an avid photographer, and Kathy was also an avid reader.
“When Mark passed away, I thought he was going to be the best-looking photographer in the world,” Kathy remembers.
But Maims had to stop going out with friends.
“We stopped going to bars because Mark didn’t like drinking.
I had to put up with his drinking.
It was like a disease, and it was like an addiction.”
Kathy and Mark Maimings have struggled with the burden of their loss.
They have two adult sons and two daughters.
They are trying to keep their jobs, pay bills, and put food on the table.
And they are worried about what will happen to Mark’s memory.
“How are we going to keep our kids together when he’s gone?”
Kathy says of her sons.
“There are so many unanswered questions.”
For now, Kathy and