Celebration of Life

My wife's older sister Judy Lohmeyer, the one with a artificial heart, was riding in a pickup truck with a friend as they went around the corner in downtown Bloomington, in front of the Pantograph Newspaper building, the door came open, Judy and all of the power packs, hoses, etc fell out of the truck from the passengers side. Landed hard but did not seem hurt outside of road rash and a bump on the head. Judy was taken to Bromen Hospital here in Bloomington where the decision was made to send her to St Francis Hospital in Peoria our Regional Trauma Center. Cindy and I were at the emergency room with her and thankfully it appeared every thing would be all right. She seemed fine and was asking for M&Ms and a Coke. When the arrived at St Francis they put her in ICU for observation only, after 1/2 hour she began to complain of a headache, things went downhill from there, to make a long story short, she slipped into a COMA in a matter of minutes, in less than an hour she was a flat line EEG . She officially passed away Monday night at midnight.

She was on the waiting list for a heart transplant, obviously she believed in the program and had in her living will that anything that could be used should be used. According to the transplant team she impacted ninety two lives with her gift of life.

There will be a celebration of life next weekend, although this was a tragedy and broke Cindy's heart, it brings a bittersweet feeling that people unknown: would see again, have kidneys, corneas, tissue and skin for grafting to burn patients.

In Illinois we sign the Back of our Drivers License indicating that one would be a donor. Mine was already signed and also in my living will. Take time to consider if you would give the gift of life and do something about it.

You never know what the next day will bring.

Thinking of my family