Grandpa John

In early February, my grandpa went into the hospital with a major heart attack. He is 87 years old but has not had any health problems for years and still cuts wood on his property nearly everyday. He was active in the community, delivered Meals on Wheels and was a funny, if often grouchy, man. Neither my mom nor her sister live in Joplin, where he lives, and they did not find out about it for a week because the "girlfriend" had chosen not to call. By the time they got to Joplin, he had checked himself out of the hospital and was at home hauling wood. At his follow-up, the doctor was amazed by how well he was doing and took him off restriction (which he obviously didn't follow anyway).

Then in late February, he was again admitted to the hospital with a severe case of pneumonia. Again, the girlfriend did not call. After a week, the hospital called my mom and they headed back to Joplin. He had not been responding to the anti-biotic and the doctors wanted to put him on a ventilator. My mom and aunt rushed around as quickly as they could to gather necessary paperwork and have grandpa complete as much as possible. This was not an easy task and created many problems. The girlfriend began to claim that grandpa wanted her to have the house, etc.... Luckily, the bank, who are executors of the estate, changed the locks on the house to avoid additional conflicts/situations.

Grandpa was put on a ventilator and sedated so that he would not remove his tubes. After two weeks he had still not responded to anti-biotics and the doctors began telling my mom and aunt that they would have to make some long-term decisions. I went home to see my grandpa and say good-bye in case he passed away before I saw him again. He had one day with so much improvement and great results in his breathing trials that the doctors began to say they may take him off the ventilator. However, after that one day, he began having troubles. His heart rate and respirations would shoot up during breathing trials and his kidneys have begun to fail. The doctors are again saying decisions need to be made--and have given them a deadline of Sunday. They are forced to take him off of the anti-biotic and the next 48 hours will tell us much about what will happen.

My grandpa has refused to receive dialysis and anyone who knows him, knows that he would hate beeing on a trache in a nursing home for the rest of his life. Yet, his mind is still fully functioning and they feel they can not make the decision to "let him go". There is NO good answer. Please pray for my family. They have gone through untold amounts of stress and will continue to do so until God makes the ultimate decision. The girlfriend and associated legal issues will continue to cause more stress. We are already grieving, for the man we knew will most likely never come back to us.