L'Chaim - To Life

My brother, John, had a near brush with death. In mid September, unbeknownst to him, Strep B bacteria began taking over his body, rendering him feverish, weak and at times, delirious. He checked himself into the emergency room but was sent home with “the flu”.

About a week later, still with fever, he blanked out and drove his car down a 200 foot embankment. This event made the front page of the Pocatello newspaper. He was rushed to the hospital and sent home with no injury. His fever persisted.

About two weeks later, friends came to check on him at home and found him so weak they called 911. This time at the hospital it was discovered that the Strep bacteria had taken up residence in nearly every cell of his body and had formed a growth around a hole in his heart valve, making sure to swish more of itself through his arteries with every pump of his heart. To say the least, John was one sick puppy. His survival was in question. He made it through open-heart surgery to remove the growth and repair the valve. But the infection was still raging. Along the path of a crazy-ass roller coaster, his body began to heal with the help of massive doses of intravenous antibiotics. Eventually he was released from the hospital transferred to rehab to regain strength and his ability to walk.

At long last he was well enough to come home this past Wednesday when I flew from California to Pocatello to help him with his recovery for this coming week. Yesterday we spent the day visiting two doctors and getting groceries and meds. After well over a month it was John’s first day walking around town. As he is a prominent doctor and owner of the local ski mountain, John is well known, loved and respected in this community. Everywhere we went people approached him, expressing their joy that he survived the car crash they had all read about. Now he’s mostly dealing with severe back pain. Hopefully that’s fixable too and he will begin enjoying life again. L’chaim. To life.

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