25 July 2004
My grandpa was only 60 years old and he just recently passed away in a General hospital on June 22nd. There are a lot of things that still don't makes sense to my family based on why this happened and why the doctors couldn't do more for my grandpa.
My grandma, myself and my fiancée drove my grandpa into a hospital on a saturday night because he was having lower back pain and severe stomach pains. When we got him to the hospital they ran tests on him and told us he had extremely high blood pressure it was up to 231 over something and his cholesterol was extremely high. They told us they were going to send him to Kingston General here in Ontario Canada because he was having a heart attack or had previously had one. So once he was their they had him in the cardiac unit which is known as Davies 3... They had all these tubes and wires coming out of him and the next day they informed us that he hadn't had a heartattack and that his heart was really healthy for a 60 year old man who has smoked most of his life.
We were overjoyed to hear that but still confused because my grandpa was still in pain so they gave him morphine.. and told him they were going to run more tests. I know in the period he was in there they ran blood tests, they put dye through his body, did an ultra sound and even an xray and told us it wasn't anything serious but they were still going to run more tests. But this carried on way too long and all they kept doing was pumping him full of morphine to ease his pain.
I should state that my grandpa was a strong yet stubborn man and all he kept telling us what that he thinks its gas, and ya know it's upsetting to think about how things turn out even though it's God's way for people. But my grandpa was hard working, he worked his butt off at even the age of 60 as an electrician. He ran his own business, "Forbes Electric", and he was spry. He would go hunting with the crew and fishing with the crew and me a lot. He played guitar like there was no tomorrow and sing oh my he could sing just like one of those old country singers ya know. There were so many things.
When they had told us that it wasn't serious and they couldn't find anything through all of those tests we really started to wonder and were furious but he was getting grumpy as usual and starting complaining about the food and he wanted a prescription for his high blood pressure and he just wanted to come home. They wouldn't let him leave.. Why not? They didn't fix the pain and we are talking about specialists. They then decided to take him off the heart monitor and move him to another room. As he would say where the nurses aren't yapping all night cause he couldn't sleep and where there is a door that closes. He needed his sleep that is for sure. So they moved him there wasting time again it was set for 1 in the afternoon when they were supposed to move him but they didn't do it until after 6 that night.
Visiting hours were up at 8 at night by the way. So we went down their and this was just after they did an ultrasound. Well they still couldn't find anything. We went in and sat with him and then it was about 7:15 and he wanted us to leave he said he was tired and just wanted some sleep because he needed it and was coming home the next day. He also told us a thousand times that he was still going fishing the next weekend that he'd planned. he had just bought a boat and recarpeted it and everything... even got it registered.
So we went to a friends of my grandpa's and stayed the night... but at 10:00 that night not even about 3 or so hours later we got a call from the hospital saying that my grandpa had taken a turn for the worst. At that point what the hell do you think or are you supposed to think. So we got in the car and got lost trying to get there but once we got there we were informed he was in ICU. WHAT!!! So we waited and waited and then a doctor came in and said that they speculate my grandpa has blood in his stomach. They were going to finally do a CT scan.
So they left and I went out towards the ICU doors and could hear stupid beeping noises and so on and it was getting closer and I was scared. Then the doors opened and there he was surrounded by a ton of strange doctors or nurses and they were taking him down to get the CT scan done. We sat and waited some more pondering what the doctor asked my granny if she wanted them to do everything they could for "Les" who is my grandpa. She said yes but he wouldn't wanna live like a vegetable. We were confused.
Then out of nowhere in come like 9 doctors women and men. And we knew it was bad at that point really bad. They sat down beside us and one doctor started explaining to my granny what happened. He said my grandpa's aorta (the largest and most serious artery in the body) had ruptured. It tore from his neck down and he bled out into his abdominal cavity. Ya know I still to this day am trying to figure out how or why. He didn't deserve this. How can it go from he's OK, its not serious, to he's taken a turn for the worst and then he's dead.
I can't remember word for word everything we were told but I remember seeing him in ICU afterwards. He had tubes out his mouth and nose and those beeping noises were there and machines...and he was no longer there he was alive by a machine. I sat beside him and held his cold clammy hand and was in disbelief the whole time. When I saw his mouth and tubes it was hard because he would gasp like a fish that puckers its lips on its last moments when you've caught it. Thats the only way I can think to put it because my grandpa taught me about nature and we always fished together.
I couldn't stay for a long period of time it was like being in a movie because I never thought this would happen to my grandpa of all people he was just too damn STRONG for this. I remember leaving because apparently his eyes came open and he started reaching for the tubes as if to pull them out.Then you wonder if he's still alive. So many stupid things run through your mind.
I guess Im just looking for answers...strict answers. Because even now, to this day, the coroner isn't even sure why this happened. We are still waiting for results. He says my grandpa's situation is unusual he has never seen anything like this before. Because usually during an aortic rupture it will bleed upwards but my grandpa's bled downwards. They tell us he could have had an aortic transplant but there are two hospitals in this whole world that do that and that is fatal because it would be hard to sew it together. I'm not sure...I'll hopefully find out more soon.
You just wish you could invent a time machine and change everything.
© Copyright 2004 Rebecca Forbes
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