Agonizing Choices

We are thinking it may best to finally take the risk to move the pops to a better medical facility. One of Ritesh's coworkers, a doctor herself, recommended that right from the beginning. So far, we have been hesitant because he just didn't seem well enough to be moved, and we knew from the insurance company that he would be moved anyway as soon as he was out of the woods. Plus we trusted the doctors, based on the miracle work the cardiologist performed at the beginning, and were of course hoping for his condition to improve. As this doesn't seem to be happening, we are growing more and more concerned. It seems the doctors here have reached the end of their wisdom. They keep repeating the same drill, dialysis and blood transfusion, and it doesn’t seem to be working. Nor have they been able to find the source of his recurring infection. Also, it might be good if he was in bigger facility that has the full-time staff to take care of him and do the necessary procedures without having to rely on outside contractors that don’t seem to be very committed to the place or the patients. No wonder he keeps getting infections if you can't trust the medical personnel to change their gloves after taking calls on their personal cell phones.

Today is Day 19 since the heart attack. He has been in critical care and on a respirator ever since, suffering from a string of complications that have culminated in kidney failure. He has had dialysis three times, number 4 due tomorrow, and three blood transfusions, but the uric acid level in his blood just isn’t going down (at the very least, we need to consult a more experienced kidney specialist...). And the most disturbing effect of the hyper-uricemia is that it affects the brain and that as a result, dad is basically comatose. This is supposed to be temporary, but it’s been several days now and it is very hard to live with. Today, they finally did a tracheotomy to help him breathe. But having him lie there unresponsive, eyes open but unseeing, is just heartbreaking.