Folks, this is one of the hardest posts I've ever had to type.
My father was scheduled for hernia repair surgery on Thursday 5/20. The week before he underwent a stress test and the cardiologist called on Friday 5/14 to give him the results, which were not good and he needed to undergo catheterization for a fairly significant blockage before he had the hernia surgery. So he had that scheduled for Tuesday 5/18. Come that morning, my mom calls me at work upset and tells me that when the doctor started the procedure, other significant blockages were found and my dad needed to be transferred to another hospital for more complex surgery. So he was transferred, evaluated, and set up for triple bypass/aortic valve replacement on Friday 5/21, which he underwent without any issues.
I'm still trying to sort out what exactly what happened from that point on. Saturday he was doing great. Come Sunday, things started to get a little wonky. My dad was hallucinating. At one point, he asked what were they going to do about his brother, who is deceased, and another time he asked when his parents, who are both decreased, were coming for him. He threw up bile a couple days. On Wednesday 5/26, he had decreased urine output. Later that day, my mom calls me at work upset that they were trying to put an NG tube down to do something to help him feel better and were having trouble. Then later on, things went completely awry, he was hypoxic, etc. and my sister is telling me is he was placed on a ventilator and ECMO. And the doctors wanted to send him for a CT scan to find out what was going on (bowel blockage, etc), but he was too unstable.
At some point, he must have stabilized and was able to undergo a CT scan the next morning. My sister and I were allowed to come visit him, so I took a half day and went down with my sister. The nurse explained to us that was likely sepsis from chemical pneumonia that resulted from aspirating, as well as a bowel blockage. There was good news, his reflexes were good, he was decreased on some of the medications he was on, one was stopped altogether. So my sister and I left feeling somewhat hopeful.
Friday was uneventful. He was considered critical but stable. Saturday I gave my mom a break from driving down and took her down to the hospital. It was just....folks, he just didn't look good. Drastically different from two days prior. He had this strange dark blue color to his face, which was supposedly due to the medications, but was still completely unsettling to see. He was hyperkalemic. His ammonia levels were elevated. His kidneys were also not doing too hot, so my mom had to consent to starting continuous dialysis. My mom and I left feeling very unsettled and when she called later that night to get an update from the nurse, it was not encouraging by any means. He was still hyperkalemic and things were just not looking good.
I went to bed feeling very unsettled by that news and at one point I heard the phone ring while I was sleeping and I rolled over and seen 6:45AM. I shot out of bed into my parent's room and when my mom got off the phone, she said it was the hospital and that we should get there as soon as possible. Then about an hour later the hospital calls again saying we really needed to get there as soon as possible. So we drive down picking my sister up on the way and rush up the floor. My dad had coded, I'm guessing right before they called us back again judging by what was written on the door (it said "shock 7:44"). He was no longer on the ventilator but was still on ECMO. The doctor came in to talk to us. It just....folks, it was just was not happening. A clergyman was on his way. And with my mom, my sister, and I standing around the bed during the reading of last rites, my father passed away at 9:23AM Sunday 5/30.