They call him "MagicMike"

He has always been able to make things happen that no one thought could happen. He works magic everywhere he goes. He's my dad and I have always admired him for that "magic". He has had health problems starting at a young age. Beginning with a massive heart attack at 40 years old, following a triple bypass and then a hereditary disease, Polycystic Kidney Disease, which began to deteriorate his organs beginning with his kidneys. About 5 years ago, the time had come for a kidney transplant and it was his wife of more than 30 years who would be the match and the donor. Everything seemed fine and he was living the life he loved with lots of world travel and running his successful wedding photography business. We all noticed over the last several years that he seemed to be getting sick often and had a harder time moving around, more fatigued. In April 2007 he returned from a trip overseas and immediately checked in to the hospital. Tests showed he had a cancer that is the result of being a kidney transplant patient from all of the anti-rejection drugs which lowers the bodies immune system. There was a mass in the lungs that was cancerous also. His health was declining rapidly and he was becoming more incoherant daily. We didn't know at that time that the hospital had knicked his bowels with the needle while performing a biopsy of the kidney which caused his bowels to perforate and was shutting down every organ in his body with infection. The family fought one of the largest health organizations in the nation to transfer my father to OHSU for better care. This is where we learned that my father was given a few weeks to a few months to live.

It is now February 2008, almost a year later and he has fought with everything he has to stay alive. He wants to live. At times, he has been given life threatening options and he has always requested the options that would help him to stay alive. He has been in and out of the hospital with various set-backs and battled HMO care tactics. My dad went back to the hospital Sunday night by ambulance and was admitted to ICU with a gram negative blood infection for which we don't know the source. His blood pressure is dangerously low and unstable, his heartbeat is irregular and he has to continue to fight for his life. But we call him "MagicMike" and I believe his will, his power to work magic and the love of his family will pull him through again.