The Cause of Larry's Death

The official cause of death is

1. Septic shock likely from pneumonia
2. Respiratory failure from 1
3. Cardiovascular collapse from 1
4. Immunosupression from renal transplant

The course of events as best I can tell, are as follows.

On Tuesday April, 7 at around 6AM he arrived at Virginia Mason complaining of chest pains. He must have called 911 because his wheel chair was still at his apartment and no one seems to have known he went to the hospital. After an hour or two in the ER he began to have problems breathing. He was put on a ventilator after some initial hesitation. He would have been sedated at that time.


At 6 PM they called me and said he had pneumonia, was sedated, and in the critical care unit. At 1:30 AM Wednesday morning they called and said he had been having a hard time breathing and expelling the c02 from his lungs. His heart had also stopped and because he was in a prone position to facilitate breathing, it took a minute to put the rotating bed in a position where they could apply CPR. After 4 or 5 minutes they were able to get his heart to work on its own. The doctor was doubtful that further interventions would help.

At 9:30 AM Wednesday, I arrived at the hospital and they told me he had passed away at 9 AM. His blood pressure over the evening had gotten lower and lower and even though they had put him on four different medications to stabilize the pressure, it continued to get worse. The doctor also noted that after they had revived him his eyes were not reactive. It is possible that after they restarted his heart he had suffered significant brain damage.

Paul