Bob Skierski

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Tribute to Bob Skierski, March 13, 1949 – March 10, 2014

My dad, Bob Skierski, died on March 10, 2014 after a 211-day hospitalization due to an abdominal fistula, which itself was a complication of 4 previous abdominal surgeries back in August and September 2013. All of these surgeries were complications from the Dacron graft that was used to replace his bifemoral aorta in August 2013. He spent much of the 211 days in a long-term acute care hospital.

He had first developed sepsis several weeks earlier back in February due to the PICC line that had been providing him with IV nutrition for the previous six months. (Sepsis and Invasive Devices) When my dad developed the fistula in September, he was put on IV nutrition (TPN). From that point on, he never ate food again, subsisting on only ice chips. With the PICC line infection suspected as the cause, he was transferred from the acute care hospital over the Valentine’s Day weekend to be treated for sepsis. He developed blood clots in both arms. I had never seen so many IV lines and medications before in my life. It was the sickest my dad had been during his entire 7-month hospitalization.

After 2 weeks at that hospital, my dad returned to long-term facility. At this point it was obvious that sepsis had left him very weak. His voice was weak, he was no longer taking walks down the halls because he could no longer get out of bed without assistance. He was weakened to the point of no return except none of us knew it at the time. His 4 months of physical therapy while at the facility were erased because of sepsis. Yet confident he had recovered from the sepsis infection, my dad’s doctors decided to proceed with surgery on March 4, 2014.

After an 8-hour surgery, my dad was doing great. The next day he spent several hours sitting in a chair. I remember how pink his cheeks looked, how big his smile was because he had made it through the surgery that he so feared. He was so happy! We were all happy and relieved thinking the worst was finally behind us. Little did we know, sepsis would strike again and this time it would take my dad’s life.

On March 8, four days after a successful abdominal surgery to correct all of his abdominal problems (fistula, colostomy, hernia, and an open wound), my dad had to be intubated due to what we now know was sepsis.

On Sunday, March 9th, with his white blood cell count continuing to rise, his doctors suspected pneumonia. Early that morning, my dad went into a-fib and his blood pressure was very low. At this point his doctors were looking for the source of infection yet none of them would say he was suffering from sepsis. I don’t think any of us, my mom or two brothers or I realized how very sick my dad was at this point, that he was fighting for his life. In the past two years, we had all witnessed my dad on a ventilator and recover so we still held on to that hope: that he would recover and finally be able to come home after so many months in the hospital.

March 10, 2014, was a Monday. It was also the 22nd anniversary of my Dziadzi’s (grandfather’s) death. I took the day off from work to spend it with my dad. I wanted to be with him on the anniversary of his father’s death. Little did I know that my dad would leave this earth on the same day as his dad.

At 12:15 pm, an echocardiogram showed that his heart was not functioning properly. My mom had joined me at the hospital. I called both of my brothers and told them to get to the hospital. I still don’t remember what else I said to either one of them. We got updated from my dad’s medical team: he had become too acidic, his lungs weren’t working well and his kidneys began to fail. My dad was relying on 100% oxygen. At this point, 27% of his heart was not functioning. I kept asking the doctors if it was sepsis. They were cautious to label it as such just saying that my dad was in multi-system organ failure and not responding to interventions. Long story short, my dad’s lungs, kidneys, heart, and blood were not working well. He was battling sepsis AGAIN…or maybe he had never fully recovered for his bout with it a month earlier. The doctors told us at some point my dad’s heart would fail and we would have to decide whether or not to resuscitate him. To avoid this, we decided to withdraw the medication that was keeping his heart pumping and shortly thereafter at 10:45 pm on March 10, 2014 my dad’s heart stopped beating.

My dad, Bob Skierski, was in the company of my mom, me, and my two brothers. We all were there with him when his body could no longer fight the demands placed upon it, when his heart stopped beating. We were with my dad when his soul left this earth. Three days later, we celebrated my dad on what would have been his 65th birthday.

For more details about Bob’s hospitalization visit his CaringBridge page.

Related News: Sepsis and Faces of Sepsis Contributor Featured on NPR

Source: by Jennifer Rodgers (Bob's daughter)

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