We Lost Our Earl

We lost our pillar and our shooting star, Earl Rodney Scott, on the morning of Friday, June 23, 2023, two weeks after being struck by an aneurysm in his sleep; roughly 3 weeks after turning 49.

Earl was a Navy Veteran. He protected my mother and me from men who would have harmed us. My big brother was my biggest go-to guy for all my nerdy questions. He’s the one who got me into comics when I was 8 yrs old, he got our younger brother, Adam, into wrestling (and sports in general) by spontaneously taking my brother and using my room as his impromptu wrestling ring; completely wrecking everything I spent a lot of time organizing…only to get up and leave once he won the match. We had similar tastes in music, we would watch anime together, play video games with our other siblings and friends, and after our family went our separate ways, Earl would always make time to fly over and either enjoy the beach, go out to dinner, go to the movies, do a road trip, or go to a football game or wrestling match. He loved life in his own way and he was always around if you were in need of help. Even his coworkers gravitated towards Earl’s approachable charisma and his loyalty to his work.

It was because of this loyalty that a coworker noticed that my brother didn’t report to work for the second day in a row. Due to his own experience with losing a loved one to an aneurysm, he called the police on Tuesday morning, June 11th. It was then that paramedics found Earl laying in his apartment unresponsive, but conscious. He was still breathing. Adam was called to the scene and had to witness our beloved brother being wheeled out on a stretcher.

Earl went into the ER, where they immediately relieved the pressure in his head and drained out the pooled blood. They also placed him on dialysis to balance out his organs, even though kidney failure was found.

Adam kept us informed. Every day or every time he went to the hospital, we joined a call. Since I take care of our elderly mother, our calls were always over the speaker. This worked out for sending messages to Earl so he could hear us, and we were so hopeful whenever Earl would respond.

The first time Mom spoke to him since the incident, tears filled Earl’s eyes. Our mother was beside herself. I also cried out of a mix of hope and grief. We wanted, so badly, for him to recover. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Day after day, procedure after procedure, my brother’s vitals never stabilized. He maintained a high fever since after the coil procedure. It would go down when we spoke, but the next morning the news would be grim again. His fever spiked, his blood pressure dropped, and hospital staff did MRI, CT, and thoracic scans to find the cause, but it was too late. The staff came up with theories on what they could try and operated on what they found, but the damage done to my brother’s body was too stressful.

Earl was on max life support and his blood pressure was at a critical level. A surgical procedure was offered to local a damaged organ that was expelling air into his system, but there was a very low chance of Earl surviving. We were all forced to come to a realization that morning of June 23rd when me, my mother, and Adam had to come to a consensus.

Adam wanted Earl to die in peace, as he is now. I wanted to take the chance with the surgery and so did mom. However, Adam spoke to my mom and she changed her mind. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it, so I asked the surgeon for a post-op scenario of what his life would be like after the surgery. It didn’t look good. Even if he lived, Earl would not be Earl anymore. His reason for living was to travel and enjoy the places he was able to go and to be of help to his family whenever they need it. But from deduction, we figured out that Earl lay in his apartment, unable to move, since either Friday night or Saturday morning. That’s at least 72 hours of no food or water during this time since he lived alone. This means the damage the ruptured aneurysm did to my big brother was extensive and Earl wouldn’t be able to move, speak, think, or generally function like he used to.

And for the life of me, I couldn’t deal with that, so I had to say no to the surgery.

Once we all agreed to forgo the surgery, Earl’s pulse stopped. We told the staff to leave him be; to not resuscitate him.

I ask you, the community, to send your donations to us in our time of need. This is to cover all expenses surrounding Earl’s death including the funeral expenses to supporting grieving survivors like our mother, who took it the worst to the point where she almost shut herself off from the world. We need to travel to Buffalo to help Adam with preparations and for us all to reunite and try to heal together in the way my big brother would have wanted us to.

Please donate what you can. All leftover proceeds will go to my mother to improve her quality of life as per Earl’s long-time wish.

My name is Nona Scott. Earl Rodney Scott was my big brother and he will always be my biggest partner in crime in life and forever; and thank you for your time and money.