August 22, 2013

Dennis is being kept alive by machines.  The doctor said his liver has shut down, his kidneys haven't worked unassisted from the beginning, his heart is being driven by two different machines now (LVAD and ECMO), he's on a respirator which is breathing for him and his blood system is affected from lack of oxygen, imbalance in the system caused by medications , trauma, and bleeding.

A Family Meeting was held with all the doctors, nurses, and medical staff who had been involved with Dennis' case. The Summarized the history and his current condition and then answered any questions the group had.

It was good to hear the doctors state that their goal was to get Dennis back to a place he had been only days before.  Walking with assistance, eating, and spending time with is family.  They stressed that they would make every effort to get him back on track, however, his body had suffered a major assault and they weren't sure if that was going to be possible.  But they were going to try every measure until the time Dennis' body let them know it just wasn't going to heal.  At the point they felt it was futile, they would let the family know and then they would have to make some decisions.

That moment came at 8:45 in the evening.  Every measure they had tried was just not giving the necessary results.  At 9:00 Kari and the family decided that Dennis' body was telling everyone "enough" and they requested that the doctors to remove all support and just make him comfortable.