AJK 1941-2009

On January 30, 2009, a home nurse finally recommended that Dad be taken to the hospital. He had not been eating well for a while after biting a piece of his tongue off while sleeping. He was also just feeling rotten and was having trouble getting from bed to his cart and vice verse. Not that it was an easy chore for him anyway but it was getting extremely difficult even by his standards. Mom took him over to St. Mary's hospital in Kankakee and he was admitted to the SICU. They found that he had pneumonia in one lung and peritonitis. After being on dialysis for around five years the doctors were a little surprised this was his first infection. Mom was always very careful to wash her hands and use a mask per the doctors orders.

While at the hospital they found that the protein levels in his blood were quite low. This lead to his oxygen levels being low which I think also lead to his blood pressure being very low. We're talking 50/25 kinda low. I could be mistaken that all of these were related but they were all problems he was having. Sometimes when you are in the hospital and there is a different nurse every day and 4-6 doctors a day, some stories and diagnoses can get criss crossed. They gave him oxygen and put a tube up his nose and down his throat to his stomach and continued his dialysis for three weeks. I went to see him every weekend and he was in decent spirits. He didn't complain about anything. When he got hot he asked to be fanned, which I gladly did. And when he got cold he asked to be covered, which I gladly did. But there was no blaming of doctors or complaining about the situation. That was never his way.

The low oxygen mixed with high carbon dioxide levels contributed to some hallucinating and some weird behavior. The first time I saw him he thought the wallpaper pattern towards the top of the wall were huge bugs crawling around. I assured him they weren't and we went about our conversation. He went on for two and a half weeks having some good days and some bad days. Two weeks after he was admitted they decided to start him on hemodialysis. He told me the next day,"That really wears ya down."

The following Wednesday, the 18th, he was receiving another hemodialysis treatment early in the morning. With only a few minutes left in the treatment he stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. It took over 17 minutes for the medical staff to revive him. He was put on a respirator and was in a coma.

After two EEGs the diagnosis was bleak. The doctor who was a long time acquaintance of my uncle, Dad's brother, gave it to us straight and said there was little to no chance of his brain ever coming back. Juli, Jane and I then had to help Mom make the toughest decision I hope she ever has to make. Dad was to be taken off his respirator.

A little before 7 o'clock on Friday, the 20th, the nurses took away all the extra machinery that had been crowding the room and fitted Dad with an oxygen mask so that if he would try to breath on his own he would have oxygen. My Dad's brother and sister, brother-in-law, Mom, Juli, Jane and I sat or stood and watched and waited. We watched the screen that displayed his blood pressure and heart rate and handed each other tissues. We hugged and cried and my aunt and grandmother arrived just as those all important numbers were reaching zero.

As He was fading away, Mom said the sweetest thing I think I have ever heard her say. "I would have happily taken care of him for another 20 years."

All of the condolences I have gotten so far have included the feeling that Dad was a great man. We in the Kresl Family feel that way too. But if anyone wants to let us know they can do so at http://www.hagermemorialhome.com/. This is the first attempt at this service so we will see how it goes. Through the years He made it perfectly clear that he did not want a visitation when he died. As Father Rickey put it, "John was a 'no frills' kind of guy. He believed in worship, prayer, and mass." I just think he didn't want us to stand in line for hours shaking hands and giving hugs to sad and crying people.