I know that I’m new to the forum, but I thought that if anyone would understand what happened tonight, people here would.
I received a phone call after 9pm (jan 22) telling me that there was an emergency with Dad and that he had taken a turn for the worse and someone needed to get up to the hospital immediately.
When we got there, the nurses told us that he had gone into respiratory failure and then cardiac arrest. They were able to bring him back, but during the process of moving him back to ICU he coded again. This time his heart stopped for over half an hour before they could bring him back.
He was back on the ventilator and unconscious when we were able to see him. The doctors told us that he suffered massive brain damage during both arrests. He also said the options were slim. We could leave him on the machine and he’d be a vegtable for the rest of his life. We could sign a DNR and wait for him to code again, or just pull him off the machine completely.
We decided to take the machines off. We had discussed it with Dad several times before, and though he continiously said he wanted to live, he also said he did not want to have to survive off of a machine.
Once the machine was taken off, it did not take long at all. It was over a long time before it began – he would have passed sooner, but the doctor wanted us to be able to say goodbye and my little sister had a 2 hour drive to get here. He passed sometime after midnight.
Daddy had gone through a lot these past few years. The ultimate cause for all of this is the vidazia and the rest were just domino effects of the drug.
At least he’s not suffering anymore right? What gets me, though, is he had the oppurtunity to get better – they had found him a bone marrow donor, but he was – and never will be – well enough to receive it.
I just don’t know what to do from here…
Sarah
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