Wife of man with hepatitis dies

In August, friends and family rallied around Carson City residents Ron and Mikki Toews, who were struggling with the cost of medical treatment for Ron's hepatitis C and the need for a liver transplant.

It all seems irrelevant now to Ron, 52, who is facing the loss of his wife and soulmate after Mikki died Friday morning from an apparent heart attack. The couple was married 10 years.

Toews said Mikki, 43, seemed to be OK before Friday's attack.

Asked how he was doing, Toews said, "Everything seems to be going OK," but he's just "going through the motions."

"I still have as much expense with bloodwork and medications," he said.

"I'm not on a transplant list yet," Toews said.

Family friend Sean Nebeker said getting Toews on Medicaid would cover about 65 percent of his medical expenses.

"We hope to get him on a donor list within a month for the transplant," Nebeker said. "Mikki had him more balanced healthwise, but she got overworked and was so stressed about this she added some weight, which may have contributed to her death."

Nebeker said when the attack occurred, Toews was able to revive her and call 911. Emergency crews had to revive her again, but she died at the hospital.

"What's hard is Mikki was his soulmate," Nebeker added. "I couldn't even imagine (what he's going through). Mikki knew so much about his disease and helped him get to this point, where he does stand a chance to recover. I think this is one of the things she stuck around for, to make sure things happened."

Teri Norgrove has been a family friend for more than 20 years and said Mikki's death is overwhelming.

"I am very shocked and it was unexpected," said Norgrove, who organized the Toews' fundraiser. "Mikki's been cutting my hair for 20 years. I can only take it one day at a time.

"Though we're (friends), not blood relatives, we're all part of the family and we're looking out for Ron and Mikki's mom. We all wish we'd have a family like theirs."

Toews said his stepson, Mikki's teenage son, Jake Helget, is with him.

"We're just kind of hanging out," Toews said. "Everything (with me) is just kind of hanging loose right now."

A memorial service for Mikki Toews is at 2 p.m. today at FitzHenry's Chapel of Faith in Carson City.

WHAT: Medical expenses

WHO: Ron Toews

WHERE: Wells Fargo Bank, No. 8276415869, or mail to The Ron Toews Family Fund, P.O. Box 1506, Carson City, NV, 89702