Dinner Benefits Mast Family’s Effort To Pay Medical Bills

Joe and Lydia Mast live a wholesome life. The Amish family of eight operates a chicken farm just outside of Southwest City.

For the 13 years that Joe and Lydia have been together, Lydia has struggled with her health.

After traveling south of the border to receive a diagnosis, the family now faces the challenge of paying the resulting medical bills.

The family hopes to raise some of the money through a weekly benefit dinner held at the Southwest City Fire Department.

Every Friday for the next few months the Mast family will be serving a homecooked meal to the public for a donation. The menu will vary from week to week, but will feature favorites such as fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, vegetables, and a dessert option. Doors will open at 5 p.m.

Long Road To Recovery

“She always had stomach problems and never had a lot of strength. It was always from one thing to the next,” Joe said. “We’d been to doctors in the U.S. over and over and they never could pin it down.”

Lydia said that their diagnosis seemed to “work like a Band-Aid,” only addressing the symptoms.

“It got so bad that she couldn’t do a full day’s work anymore,” Joe said.

As time passed, Lydia’s thyroid began to swell, adding an air of urgency to their already-desperate search for an answer.

“My throat was filled with boils and cysts,” she said. “Doctors said there was no way they could leave it like that.”

The couple felt they had exhausted their options within the United States, so they took a trip to Mexico to undergo thyroid surgery. Tijuana to be precise.

“They doctor so much different,” Lydia said. “They get to the root of the problem more so than here.”

While being evaluated, doctors in Mexico also diagnosed Lydia with Lyme disease and lupus.

The doctor prescribed her medication to treat the Lyme disease. Unfortunately, now that she has returned to U.S. soil, no pharmacies will fill the foreign prescription.

Lydia plans to pursue holistic treatment for the lupus.

Their 8-year-old son, Willard, also broke his arm while riding a pony in Mexico – incurring additional medical expenses.

The family is facing $30,000 in medical bills in all as well as ongoing treatment and recovery.