Brad's Death

Tragedy struck our home in 1981. On February 7th, Brad went on the annual school ski trip to Tahoe. When he came home he had a temperature of 100, sore throat and cold. We took him to the doctor and he said Brad had the flu and to give him lots of liquids and aspirin. Greg was also pretty sick with the flu and we thought they probably both had the same thing. In a couple of days we sent Brad back to school but when he came home he told us that he still had a 100 degree temperature. We kept him home a few more days. I suspected that he had pneumonia and told Kaye to take him back to the doctor and get a chest x ray. The doctor told Kaye he didn't need a chest x ray and sent him home. We kept him there a few more days and he wasn't getting better. I kept thinking he had pneumonia, so Saturday morning I was getting ready to go the office and Brad was sitting there watching cartoons. He just didn't look quite right to me. I told Kaye to take him to Dr. Long and get chest x ray and a blood test. Then again they said he didn't need them and sent him home again. I was very angry. During the period of time Brad asked Robbie to give him a blessing. In the blessing Rob said Brad would suffer like Job in the bible. after the blessing I told Rob that was very scary. I had just assumed that it was the flu or pneumonia. Rob said he didn't remember what he had said.

The following Tuesday I sent Kaye down to get an x ray of Brad and not to come back without it. Kaye got the x ray done and the doctor said they would call us with results. They didn't call on Tuesday so Wednesday I called the doctor and they said, "Yes, he's got pneumonia." He put him on Keflex, a strong antibiotic. Usually this drug works pretty fast, but Brad didn't get better and he started throwing up everything he ate. Lo and behold he started getting little lumps on the back of his neck. I told Brad that there is a chain of lymph nodes there and sometimes when you are sick they would swell up. A day or two later he got a little lump about the size of a BB on the top of Brad's head.

When they took him to an internist, Dr Pettrak, to see what he thought was wrong with Brad, he told me the lump was a dermoid cyst. I said, "Bologne. Dermoid cysts don't put up like that." A day or so later another little lump popped up on his forehead.

Friday I took him to Dr. Bekett, our neighbor who was a dermatologist to have the lump biopsied. It would take about a week to get the results back. Brad was still getting sicker. On Thursday Kaye called her father, R Adams Cowley, who was Chief of Thorassic Surgery and head of Shock Trauma at the University of Maryland to tell him about Brad and get some advice. She told him Brad's symptoms. He said he would check with the doctors back there and call me back. In a little while, he said he was coming out that night.

When he stepped in the door, Brad was sitting on the couch and he said Brad didn't look too bad and he said to Kaye, "You told me that Brad was dying." Kaye said, "I didn't say that." This was March 6th. Brad had been sick about one month. Kaye's father then sat down and started going through the symptoms. Trying to figure out what was wrong with Brad. The biopsy result wasn't back yet. He decided it might be leukemia. He said Brad needed to be in Stanford Hospital. The next morning on Friday we took Brad to Stanford. The doctors at Stanford examined Brad and thought it might be a lymphoma. I called Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz to see if the biopsy results were back. They said they were so I drove back to the hospital to pick them up. I read the report and it said he had some form of squamous cell carcinoma. I started to walk out with the report to take to the Stanford doctors. They told me I couldn't take it. I said "Bull shit, this is my son who has cancer." They said, "You can't take it." I said, "Watch me." And I took it out the door. Two security guards got on each side of my car and I just drove off and took the report to the doctors in Stansford. They immediately tried to determine what kind of squamous cell cancer it was. It was detected first on the first x ray as a small spot on the outside of his lung. Because he was growing so fast it caused the tumor to grow fast and it was now a large spot on the outside of his lung. This caused his lung to not inflate and deflate properly. They started chemotherapy, but they had to stop it on Wednesday because his blood was going wild. They told us there was nothing else they could do for him. We brought him home on Wednesday. We set up a hospital bed for him in the living room. Some of his friends and all of our family came to be with him. He had Duke, his dog, and Mr. T, his horse to see him on the way to the house.

Brad wanted me to quit drinking alcohol and get ready for us to be sealed as a family in the temple for eternity. I promised him that I would. I have never had a drink since then.

Friday morning it was raining, Brad was feeling pretty bad and asked Rob for a blessing to die. In the blessing, Rob told him that when the sun came out that Brad would go to be with Heavenly Father. About 30 minutes later the rain stopped and the sun came out. Brad said, "I'm going home!" Then he passed away. The funeral was held on March 17th at the stake center in Santa Cruz. It was over flowing with people. He is buried at the cemetery by Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz.