TexasCHLforum.com

Sincerest thanks to all of you for your prayers. It was, however, God's wisdom to call Patrick home in the early hours of this morning. He had been kept sedated and unconscious since March 14, so there was no pain or discomfort to his passing. He is now at peace.

Your prayers are helping. Thank you.

His fever was controlled yesterday, and seemingly the sepsis is under control, as well. He's still sedated, intubated, and on the ventilator, of course, but last night and this morning was the most peaceful his body has been since they first tried to remove the chest tube almost two weeks ago. We're all taking that as a good sign of the beginnings of improvement.

Many, many thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.

The whole situation is a nightmare. Literally. It seems like a complete fiction. You couldn't fabricate this series of events if you tried, and if you did no one would believe it could happen in a modern hospital. Makes you terrified of even considering surgery.

This guy has been a man's-man all his life. He manages marina operations, has in the Caribbean and in multiple locations in the States. He's always worked sun-up to past sundown with indefatigable energy, and much of it hard, heavy, physical work. He was a very fit 6'2" 210. The kind of guy whose personality and physical presence filled any room he walked into. He was making wisecracks and laughing when he was admitted to the hospital and went in for prep. In his surgical gown, with a wink and a grin, he even threatened to flash the nurses.

He had no symptoms going in. None. He took no medications; his BP, cholesterol, and blood sugar were always normal.

The tiny, non-malignant mass was discovered during a routine x-ray after a mainsail boom had smacked him in the back on a small boat. He had no significant pain in his back's thoracic area after the hit; a medical check was protocol. Pulmonologist recommended, logically, removing the mass before it grew or became malignant. Simple. Minimally invasive surgery; no chest-spread, in through the ribs. Three days in the hospital, max.

The surgery was at noon on March 9. It's day 15, and things now look more bleak than ever.

The paralytic drug I mentioned was a one-day thing, not ongoing. They decided it was again time time to remove the chest tube. When they did, he went into a-fib. Determining there was still an unidentified leak, they had to put the chest tube back in. This was yesterday, and he went into fibrillation at least three more times.

Last night, his heart rate began to increase, his blood pressure sank, and his low-grade fever grew to 103. He now has widespread MRSA infection, he's in sepsis.

Lead Doc still thinks it can be beat, but giving no odds. Recovery, if the Lord grants it, is now at weeks or even months, not days.

This is a highly respected hospital operated by one of the country's best medical university systems. I will not mention it's name because I go under it's knife next month. And, yes, I am now afraid.

How does this happen? How do more MRSA hospital patients die every year than the total of all gun-death homicide victims, including gang and illegal activity, and the liberals ignore it? Hey, Bloomberg and Soros and Mom's Demand Everything, you watching?

Clean up the hospitals. Lysol can save more lives than gun control legislation.

Many, many thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Today, his carbon dioxide levels remained too high, his breathing rate too rapid and shallow. The doctors' decision was to put him on meds that effectively paralyzed him, shutting down his own breathing and allowing the ventilator to do all the work. His body, even though heavily sedated, was fighting the machine and working too hard.

We so need a positive turn in this battle. His wife, my close friend since 1975, is understandably barely keeping it together. Your continued prayers are deeply appreciated.

A friend of mine is on life support and could use all the prayers he can get.

The husband of a woman I've known for 40 years was admitted to a Plano hospital on March 9 to have a small, non-malignant mass in one of his lungs removed. It was a "minimally invasive" surgery, meaning they didn't have to open the chest at the sternum, but went in between ribs to perform the procedure.

All seemed to have gone well. At first.

Due to an error made when removing the drainage tube on March 11 in preparation for his planned release March 12, he developed something that was new to me: subcutaneous emphysema. A procedure was performed to reinsert a drainage tube and remove the excess air under the skin, which was causing significant breathing difficulty.

The subcutaneous emphysema was corrected, but he got worse. Feverish, even delusional.

Fast forward 12 days after his admission. He's now on a life support machine to do his breathing for him, being kept sedated, and is being pumped full of multiple antibiotics that I'd never heard of...for a hospital-acquired MRSA infection.

I had naively thought that MRSA, since the problem was diagnosed years ago, was less of a problem now in modern hospitals. Evidently not so...even though statements from the CDC say that proper hand washing and environment disinfection by healthcare workers is effective in controlling it. There are about 12,000 hospital deaths in the U.S. annually due to MRSA infection.

My friend could sure use your prayers that he doesn't become part of that statistic. We should know by Tuesday if the antibiotics are working.