Obituaries : Jeff Litoff; Heart Transplant Recipient

Jeff Litoff, the Newbury Park man whose desperate need for a heart transplant he couldn’t afford touched off a frenzy of community fund-raising in the Conejo Valley, has died. He was 50.

Family friend Marilynn Singer said Litoff died Saturday of complications following the transplant he received Jan. 30. The former appliance repairman died peacefully in his sleep, she said.

“He went to bed and he went to sleep,” Singer said. “There were rejection problems, but he was a fighter. We all thought he was going to make it.”

Litoff and his wife Rosemarie made headlines when they said they were considering divorce--despite an extremely happy marriage--because their insurance would not cover the cost of the expensive transplant. If Litoff were single and declared himself indigent, he could have qualified for Medi-Cal.

Aghast at his plight, friends, family and neighbors immediately rallied to raise money for the couple. Seeing the outpouring of affection and enthusiasm, the directors of the national Organ Transplant Fund in Tennessee offered to lend the rest of the money so that Litoff could get the transplant as soon as possible.

Singer said the family has raised almost half the $200,000 needed to pay off the medical bills, but still needs help.

“At this point, there are still outstanding bills,” Singer said.

During the fund-raising drive for the couple, hundreds of Thousand Oaks residents pitched in to help. At the Janss Marketplace, where a thermometer sign displays how much money has been raised, merchants have donation boxes on their checkout counters and all the change tossed into the fountains is being given to the effort. Schoolchildren also chipped in with penny drives that generated more than $1,000.

Litoff was born in New Jersey and raised in Palm Springs, where he attended high school. He studied to be a chiropractor. For more than a decade, he ran Active Appliance Service. He was active with the Boy Scouts of America and Temple Adat Elohim.

He is survived by his wife, Rosemarie, and his son, Brett.

Litoff was buried at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

In lieu of flowers, his wife has asked for donations to the Friends of Jeffrey P. Litoff, P.O. Box 766, Newbury Park 91320-0766.

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