Summer Love,Summer Loss" 2007"

by Janet F.
(Port Saint Lucie,Fl. U.S.A.)

This tragedy did creep up on us. Lessons were learned because of my beloved husband Mikes' sudden death. We are seniors who only wanted to let life finally sort of be more gracious to us.

My honey still had a part time job to get a little more spending money. Maybe this was wrong, I will never know. It certainly brought a lot of grief to me after he died. On September 8th, 2006, after being checked for having had a heart attack, Mike was operated on. Triple By Pass. What a shock.

These surgeries are life saving really. He pulled through pretty good. They found another problem upon operating. His Mitral Valve had a small tear in it. We were told to rest at home and sometime later they would have to operate again. So that didn't make us feel too good. They said watch for symptoms and take it easy.

About 9mo. later, June 7 2007, it was decided they had to operate because of fatigue and weight loss, also it had to be replaced with a pig valve. The surgery was risky because he was not that strong.

The surgeon pulled him through though, and he was glad it was over. Blood thinners were important there is no doubt. The blood has to keep from clotting too severely. In 10 days he came home. We all took good care to follow Doctors' orders but something went terribly wrong. A visiting nurse was assigned but !!!! never checked his clotting levels.

My poor husband sat up in bed at 2:15am on the 25th. of June, said a few words to me, he then lost consciousness. The ambulance arrived as soon as I called them. He was put on life support and sometime later we were told after a cat scan that he had a severe brain bleed. Very shortly later he started to hemorrhage from his nose & mouth.

What a sad sad day. He was taken off life support. Leaving without him that day is etched in my mind. That visiting nurse failed at her responsibility. I hurt because you put your trust in the hands of strangers,and you believe they know what they are doing. Yes I'm angry!

Mike never got a chance to heal, to get on with life again. He was 72.

Sincerely Janet.

P.S. I'll love him forever