David DeShong

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.  I will try and briefly recap our journey as best for those who are later tuning in or could have easily missed some of sweet Davids struggle.


Since July of 2017 when we rushed David to the hospital at Lake Burton and then onto to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, GA because he was diagnosed septic.   We still do not understand and saw a multitude of doctors trying to  determine why this seemingly healthy, strong young  54 year old man went into septic shock.  Mid September of that same year, while still in a weakened state, David was having a late lunch by himself close to his office and choked on a steak burrito.  He was able to, by the grace of God, get the meat out but the expulsion was so violent that it tore the lower part his esophagus.  Overnight emergency surgery by Dr. Shadye Eldaif quite frankly saved his life that night but set us on a medical journey that is quite frankly has had so many twists and turns, ups and downs, as well as highs and lows. The repaired esophagus would just never heal and food would leak into his body which had us in and out of the hospital the year of 2018. 


I had not set up the Caring Bridge Site until October 2018 when we traveled to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) for what we thought was a little procedure to figure out next steps and turned into.... You have no choice - You are again septic, and we recommend STRONGLY, that tomorrow David will have an Esophagectomy and Gastric Pull UP.  I have that pretty well documented in my journals.


So here we are again, 16 months later back at UPMC.  This past year there have been a lot of complications with food and drink  over and above the normal side effects of the above surgery.  All the way, David has showed strength, determination, mostly a good attitude and hardly ever complaining.  He has tried to not put the burden on me but all the while trying to keep up his strength and being proactive with the doctors.   The only "normal" in his life has truly been the ability to still work and put in 100%.  To that we are so thankful.  We are back to try and get a better new normal!!