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Friends Will Host Fundraiser for Man Waiting for a Heart Transplant

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Sep 8, 2010 at 5:21 PM MST

Story Updated: Sep 8, 2010 at 5:21 PM MST

One local man is miles away from home waiting for a heart transplant. Back here in Great Falls, his friends are joining together to help him pay for the bills he's accumulated.

Joe Erickson moved to Spokane almost a year ago and is still waiting for a heart to become available. During that time he's piled up more than one million dollars in medical bills. His friends here in Great Falls, are hosting a fundraiser to help cover some of the costs.

Jim and Cammie Maloney met Joe about 12 years ago and instantly hit it off. “Joe and I, and Cam and the kids all got real close with Joe. He’s easy to hang around with, he’s a lot of fun,” Jim Maloney says. “And he’d do anything for us, and we’d do anything for him,” Cammie Maloney adds. Anything includes hosting a fundraiser to help cover some of his medical costs. “We can raise money to make his life less of a burden,” Jim says.

Joe had to move to Spokane to be closer to a hospital and is constantly on call. “If they say, ‘Joe we have a heart,’ he has to get to the hospital within an hour, otherwise he loses the heart,” Cammie says. Right now he relies on a machine to keep his heart beating. “He has two batteries and he has a lead that goes in his side, it goes through his heart. That’s the only thing keeping his heart pumping,” she says.

Even under those circumstances, friends describe Joe as optimistic and fun loving. “Most people on the heart transplant list are on anti-depressants because it’s a long process. But Joe, to this day, is not,” Cammie says. “He’s Big Joe, and he has a big heart, a good sense of humor and is easy to talk to.” Jim says.

Cammie describes him as “Somebody everybody can get along with.” Something a lot of patients at Benefis learned when he and his therapy dog, Sarge, would visit them. An activity he continues in Spokane. “He goes and sits and talks with the patients and he tries to help where ever he can,” Cammie says.

Jim Maloney says already response has been good. “A lot of people know Joe, and if somebody doesn’t know Joe, we explain Joe’s situation. I don’t know where it comes from, people in Great Falls really make you have a warm heart,” he says.

The fundraiser will be a spaghetti dinner with live and silent auctions, this Saturday from 5 to 8:30 pm at the Moose Lodge in Black Eagle. Organizers are asking for donations of five dollars per adult. You can donate online as well at transplants.org

The Maloneys are still looking for volunteers to help at the dinner. If you would like to donate an item to be auctioned off, just bring it with you to the dinner on Saturday.

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