June
20, 2017
 |
| Brad Crosby |
Brad
died this evening. Yesterday and today he sounded like someone who
should've been in an ICU somewhere, but of course, there are no
hospitals anymore. His fever shot up to almost 104 degrees and he
just laid there and shook with chills. He threw up all the broth he
tried to drink and the last two times he did, there was blood in the
throw up. He coughed so hard all day today that Jackie is pretty sure
he broke a couple of ribs just by coughing.
This
afternoon, his shaking changed. He started having seizures and there
was nothing any of us could do but help to hold him down so we
minimized any injuries he could give himself. He had so many seizures
for the first couple hours after they started, I wasn't sure he would
survive the seizures themselves.
We
brought his fever down by pouring water over him in the bathtub, but
we knew it wouldn't last for long, and it didn't. Within two hours of
our having bathed him, the fever spiked back to almost 104 degrees
and the seizures started again. That's when he started coughing up
greenish chunky lung stuff with blood mixed in. That was around 3:00
pm today. From that point on, everything just went downhill. More
blood came out with every cough, then he started bleeding from his
eyes and ears while he coughed. Before long, he had bubbles of blood
coming out his mouth even when he was just laying there. His eyes
started glazing over and his skin turned grey and clammy.
By
5:30 pm, his lungs were making this gurgling noise as he tried to
breath and his lips turned blue as he got less and less oxygen with
every breath. Within an hour of that, he wasn't responding when
Jackie tried to get him to fight between seizures and coughing
spells. By 7:00 pm, he had stopped trying to breathe regularly and
was just sporadically gasping for breathe. Within a half hour, he
was dead. Jackie was determined to try CPR, but we all talked her
down. His lungs were so full, she wouldn't be able to get oxygen to
him, but she might get exposed to whatever he had even worse than she
already has been.
We
all gathered in the barn and had a moment to mourn together, but not
long. I hated to point out that we needed to take care of Brad before
the came back. Jackie says he shouldn't be able to come back since he
wasn't bit, but I pointed out that we shouldn't take a chance.
Everyone else agreed and I took care of it before we held a funeral
with a funeral pyre. We burned him and the blankets and any clothes
that came in contact with him. So far, no one else has gotten sick,
so we hope we dodged that bullet. It's late in the evening now, so we
are staying here tonight for sure, maybe even tomorrow according on
how much rest Jackie can get since she is exhausted from taking care
of Brad. But we will be leaving for Greenbrier soon.
Brad,
we didn't know you for long but you were a good person and didn't
deserve to die like you did. Rest in peace, my friend.
As a writer and artist, I appreciate
any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read
this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan
collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at
www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology
of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the
art we produce in our Etsy store at
etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at
@ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.
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