Ismael A Single Father of 3 children final wish
Donation protected
Hello everyone, I am coming to you all in hopes that we can get some help in our time of need. A few days ago I received a call from a family member that I needed to go to the hospital right away that my father had been in an incident at work where he was driving a tractor back to their maintenance department but at the time a speeding suv came from behind and drove straight into the tractor that he was driving which in doing so sent him flying out of the tractor straight onto the concrete ground in front of him. With the speeds which the vehicle was coming the impact on his body was enough to knock him out unconscious and stopping heart his heart from functioning. Luckily officers were already at the scene as they were going after the vehicle involved so they were able to provide CPR and get his heart working again but that wasn’t the worst part. Not knowing what was going on I called my sister to meet us at the hospital letting her know that something had happened to our father and that my brother and I were already on our way me being the oldest. When we arrived at first we could not get a hold of my father being that he was still unconscious and their was no identity on himself at the time of the incident we were unable to search him up in their registry so after what seemed like hours and a lot of back and forth from the security guards, finally with the help of a social worker we were able to finally identify him and they brought us to a separate private room and then told us to wait here that a doctor would like to speak with us before we went in to see him. Fearing the worst we waited silently in that room until like after 30 minutes the doctor finally showed up and sat down with us and that’s when he started apologizing for what had happened and then when straight to telling us that are father was rendered brain dead with the impact and that they ran some tests on him and unfortunately all the tests came back negative as you could imagine our hearts just sank and my sister burst into tears. After telling us this he asked if we would like to go see him, which we nodded and walked behind him where they had him in critical care. It was at that moment when we saw him we knew the extent of his injuries which just broke us being a single father of three the thought just came to us if he is gone it’ll just be the three of us now and that we could not hold in. We sat in that room and just watched him lying lifeless on the bed connected to a respiratory device and a few IV tubes just hoping he would give any signs of life. After hours the time came where visiting hours were at its end and we were then told that we needed to head back home and that we can come back tomorrow as they needed to relocate our father to a regular ICU room. Saddened by the sight of him and having to leave we mustered enough strength to get up and walk out. That night we could not sleep at all just thinking about what had happened and why him out of all people, at the time we still did not know how and why the incident occurred all we knew was that the incident was believed to be “intentional” from what the doctor mentioned to us. Throughout the night we went and started telling the rest of his family his brothers and sisters about what had happened and to pass it on letting the rest of his family know including any family in Mexico so that entire night consisted of just phone calls from his family trying to find out what they could on how my father was doing. When morning came we got ready and headed out to the hospital, we arrived around 9am as that was when visiting hours opened for emergency but we were unaware that the ICU had different visiting times and that they didn’t open until 11am so given that we had to wait 2 hours on the waiting lobby for the ICU section to open up. When the time finally came we headed over to the ICU security guard to get access to see him. We came with high hopes that we would see some sign of recovery in him but when we walked into his room our hearts sank again as we saw his lifeless body just laying there again exactly the same as we saw him the day before. As we were in there a nurse came by and told us that the lead doctor would like to have a word with us on our dads situation which we said ok and waited. Once the doctor finally arrived he apologized for what had happened and for what he was going to tell us. He sat down next to us and begun telling us that they ran some tests to see if their was any signs of brain activity which even included taking him off the life support breathing device for 10 minutes to see if he would breath on his own but all the tests they attempted all came back negative and that our father giving those results was considered completely brain dead, after hearing that we all burst into tears as he assured us that there would be zero chance of recovery from that. Then he said they would do one final test the next day with a different set of doctors to confirm the results and then they can officially say he will not make it. So for the time being, he told us to let any family know that if they wish to see our father on his last days that they should come visit him now. So which we did, we had his brothers and sisters come from Los Angeles and a few that actually flew in from Mexico as well to come see him. That entire day was spent with family coming In and out and tears and hugs going all around at the sight of our father. Then the time finally came where they had to close up again for visitors and we were asked to go home but before that the doctor spoke with us and said that the final tests would be done in the morning and that they will tell us the results in the morning. Holding on to hope we went home with that in hopes that the following day would bring better news. It did not. The next morning we arrived at 11 in time for visiting and when we finally got up to his room we saw our father still lying there not better but worse, his entire body had basically doubled up on swelling and that already told us things were not getting better which was right when the doctor finally came in again he apologized for what he was going to tell us and then began by saying that our father over night got into a more critical condition that his blood pressure kept revolving from super high to very low and that it was talking more and more medication to keep it leveled and that his organs have begun to shut down as well started with his kidneys and had stopped working at all that which impeded them from making the final set of tests so they gave us one final option which was to put our father on “Comfort Care” as he was getting to critical and did not have long to live anymore, once organs start failing it won’t be long before the lungs or the heart will give out and in an effort to keep him away from any more pain we were faced with the tough decision to put him on Comfort care which basically means put him to rest in the most comfortable way possible. Faced with that decision we made a few calls to his closest family members his brothers and sisters and even though it was tough we decided to take that route as it was painful to keep watching our father keep suffering like this when the end result was already said by the lead doctor that death was the only result. So giving that we all agreed that would be for the best and we approved the Comfort care. When night time came we waited in the room saying our final goodbyes as we watched the lead doctor pull the plug on all the medicines except for morphine to help with any pain and turned off the life support machine as we slowly watched our father heart beat get lower and lower. We watched in silence, it only lasted a few minutes but it felt Ike hours that’s when the doctor broke the silence with “time of death 9:40pm” and then went on and apologized and then went on and walked out the room. Realizing our father had just passed away and it was a reality we just stood there staring at his lifeless body. Now I ask if anyone could help with our father as now that he is dead he had one wish that he would always tell us that if he would ever come to die that he wanted to get buried in his hometown in Mexico next to his mother and his brother and that the grave was already purchased by him over 10 years ago. So following that we are trying to fulfill his wish but with his upcoming hospital bills, morgue fees and being that it’s just the 3 children that are left we are asking for any help possible to make our fathers dying wish a reality. Thank you again and any help would be greatly appreciated at our time of need. God bless you all.
Organizer
Francisco Hernandez
Organizer
San Leandro, CA