Hello everyone - This is Marty Gartenberg's son, Shaun. It is with great sadness for me to say that my father passed away this past week, on Wednesday, November 7th, after having entered hospice care the previous Friday, November 2nd. I know many of you were good friends with him and that he helped a lot of people through this support group.
This all started with a bad fall over 7 weeks ago on September 15 in his garage where he fractured his left femur. He subsequently underwent surgery to get a rod implanted in the bone to help it heal. After a few weeks of physical therapy, a checkup showed that one of the screws needed to be adjusted, so he had a second surgery for that to adjust the rod, and add a plate. After having more therapy, a MRSA infection was discovered in the incision wound. He also contracted pneumonia. In order to combat the infection, he had a third surgery on the incision to perform a debridement of the wound and was put on course of several antibiotics. He was admitted to the ICU to be treated for the complications of the infection. Unfortunately, all of this became just too much for him to take. While he did show improvement medically, and eventually went from the ICU into a regular hospital room, he was in a lot of pain, which got progressively worse each day all over his body, and discomfort from the effects of the antibiotics. Eventually, he began denying his food and medication and reached a point where he did not want to continue to fight. Moving to hospice was a painful decision to make, especially knowing how much of a fighter my Dad was through all of the struggles he's been through in his life. But, those were his wishes and we didn't want him to continue to suffer. The hospice care did make him comfortable and he finally passed Wednesday afternoon. After not having had his heart medicines (and others) for so many days, his heart rate was in the 160's, and I guess it finally gave out, but we don't know the exact cause. I believe he passed peacefully, though. He was 74 years old. I am so grateful and blessed to have had my Dad in my life, and I know he touched countless others lives all over the world. His altruism inspired me throughout my life. Please keep him in your prayers and thoughts. His funeral will be this Monday, November 12th at 11:00 AM, at the Beth Israel Memorial Chapel in Boynton Beach, Florida, followed by burial at the Eternal Light Memorial Gardens cemetery at 12:15 PM, also in Boynton Beach. My family and I will be sitting Shiva (a Jewish mourning ritual at home) Monday evening and Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and evening. Regards, Shaun -- -- [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
