161 Ken Thomas 1937-2020

My father-in-law passed away yesterday, from Covid-19. Deb, her brother Kyle and sister Kim, and his wife Maria were all in the room. 

An SF native who retired to Venice, Florida, he was exposed to the Cov2 virus in late June through his wife's work at a nursing home. She's about sixty and recovered. He was eighty-three, and didn't.

At first, he just got tested because his wife was experiencing symptoms. They didn't get those test results before my step-mother-in-law had to go to the hospital. So he got tested again, and it came back positive. 

From there, "just a cough" became a couple visits to the hospital, diarrhea, dehydration, then checking into the hospital, then the ICU, then an intervention to do something about the diarrhea, then cardiac arrest, then code, resuscitated but tubed with a broken rib, then seeing when the tube can come out, but never getting there, then an MRSA infection, then a line in every artery in his neck, three weeks of proning and sedatives, then dialysis, because his kidneys couldn't handle the drugs. At this point, it was decided rather than a tracheotomy and being hooked up to machines for the rest of his bed ridden life (he walked into the hospital that first time), to remove the tube and move him to hospice.

That's when Deb headed to see him. They gave him 24-48 hours, he made it a week. He surprised the doctors so much they held him in ICU for an extra six days. He fought like hell.


As the sedatives wore off at the end, Deb could see he was in pain. But he waited until everyone was with him before passing peacefully.

Rest in peace, Ken. Sorry you missed seeing a cardboard cutout of your face in the stands of the Cincinnati Reds. And thanks for giving me a great woman to love.

You will be missed. And I hope you didn't vote already.

Or as Deb said, he put in one hell of a final inning.



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