Sorry it took a while for me to get back with you. I wanted to check with Jan, his caregiver, and see how much information she has already provided.
My brother, Dave, had been back in the hospital for wound care. I should add that Dave was in TX and I'm in AZ and when I talked to him he really downplayed how bad things were. So, much of the information I have is from my 80 yr old mother. He had been fighting an open wound near his coccyx for over a year. He had a wound vac but the wound got steadily larger. My mom said at one point the doctor told her the wound would never heal. However, this time when he was in the hospital, my mother said they discovered he needed a lot more protein than what he was getting in his diet. She said the nurse from the wound care clinic had expressed optimism that they could get it healed. They had a treatment plan all set up: Dave would go home, stick to a really high protein diet, go to the wound care clinic once a week, as well has having a home health RN coming in and doing dressing changes. The day he was going to be discharged he called his brother and told him to take the steaks out of the fridge because they were going to fire up the grill the next day! Shortly after that they pulled his central line and he coded. Late that night he was able to communicate a little with his son but by morning he was again unresponsive. They did a ct (or MRI) which apparently showed brain damage. The only thing keeping him alive was the medication that kept his bp and heart rate up. They decided to make no changes until his other son arrived from MI. My mother said when Jon got there they stopped the medication and he passed away in a few minutes from what I understand. I hope I'm giving you accurate information since a lot of it came from my mother and she was pretty upset while all this was going on. I know my brother would want me to share anything with you that might help someone else. He knew more about health care, as related to quads, than most people in the medical field. (And I say that as a nurse.) It has been comforting to me to read his words on the Quad List and to read the kind words said about him. Thank you!
Nina James
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 14:57:38 -0700
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Fwd: Re: [QUAD-L] Dave Kelmer
- From: [email protected]
- Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 17:48:36 EDT
- Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] Dave Kelmer
- To: [email protected]
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- Nina,
- I enjoyed Dave's posts a lot and I will miss his contributions to our group. As some of us are on a similar path as Dave, can you tell us how he passed, breathing, heart, UTI..? My prayers are with him and all you that he left behind.
- Dave O'Connell
- Take the world in a love embrace
- Fire all of your guns at once
- And explode into space
- DAVEOCONNELL.COM
- Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 17:48:36 EDT
